BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

-0- 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


Commemorating  i\\t  passage  of  ii\e 


of  t 

"4W«rcb,  4,   1915" 
On  the  scroll  at  the  top  of  the  picture  appear  these  words: 

"Anb  it  came  to  pries.  3Ibe  soil  of  ib,c  33«itcb  plates  becomes  Jifolg  Oirounb.  ^Iresibeut 
;Q?oobroto  i@tlson  signing  the  J^eamen's  Act,  passcb  bg  tb.e  especial  efforts  of  ^enators  anb 
Jflctnbcra  of  (Congress,  frtljosc  names  me  mtsb  to  transmit  to  tb,e  JS&eameit  of  tb,e  future.  (Ebi* 
Art  liberates  ttje  seamen,  tb,e  last  bonbmcn  iuithiu  tb,e  jurisbictton  of  tb,e  33niteb  ^tates." 

The  following  appear  in  the  picture  from  left  to  right: 

Top,  President  Woodrow  Wilson.  First  row,  top.  Senator  Fletcher,  Senator  Vardaman.  Speaker  Champ  Clark,  Repre- 
sentative Alexander,  Representative  Hardy.  Second  row.  Senator  Kern,  Senator  Williams,  Senator  Sutherland.  Third  row. 
Representative  Livernash,  Representative  Spigot.  Representative  Wilson.  Senator  LaFollette.  Fourth  row  on  left.  Senator 
White:  on  right.  Representative  MacGuire;  io  center.  J.  H.  Bradley.  Robert  Robertson.  P  H.  Olsen,  Morris  Hansen  of  the 
"Arago'  case.  Fifth  row,  lower  part  of  picture  on  left,  George  Bolton,  Nicholas  Jortall,  Walter  MacAnhur,  Committee  of 
Seamen  who  made  first  draft  of  bill  in  1892;  Center,  Samuel  (Jumpers,  President  of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor;  on 
right.  Andrew  Furuseth,  Victor  A.  Olander,  Patrick  Flynn.  Legislative  Committee.  International  Seamens  Union  of  Americs. 


Men  of  the  Sea 

The  nation  that  proclaimed  your 
freedom  now  needs  your  services. 
America  is  at  war.  Our  troops 
are  being  transported  over  the 
seas.  Munitions  and  supplies  are 
being  shipped  in  ever  increasing 
quantities  to  our  armies  in  Europe. 
The  bases  are  the  ports  of 
America.  The  battle  fields  are 
in  Europe.  The  sea  intervenes. 
Over  it  the  men  of  the  sea  must 
sail  the  supply  ships.  A  great 
emergency  fleet  is  now  being 
built.  Thousands  of  skilled  sea- 
men, seafaring  men  of  all  capaci- 
ties who  left  the  sea  in  years  gone 
by  as  a  protest  against  serfdom 
from  which  no  flag  then  offered 
relief,  have  now  an  opportunity 
to  return  to  their  former  calling, 
sail  as  free  men  and  serve  our 
country. 


"Under  the  American  Flag  seamen  are  free  men. 


A  MESSAGE 

TO 

SEAMEN 

A  Call  to  the  Sea  and  to  Seamanship 


INTERNATIONAL    SEAMEN'S    UNION 
OF  AMERICA 


'429 


HD 


SEAMEN: 

Know  your  duties. 


Know  your  responsibilities. 
Know  your  rights. 


A  Call  to  the  Sea 

To  all  Seafaring  Men  Ashore  or  Afloat 


The  International  Seamen's  Union  of  America,  in  annual 
convention  assembled,  representing  the  organized  Seamen  of 
America,  submits  the  following  to  all  men  of  seafaring  experi- 
ence, ashore  or  afloat. 

The  nation  that  proclaimed  your  freedom  now 
needs  your  services.  America  is  at  war.  Our  troops 
are  being  transported  over  the  seas.  Munitions  and 
supplies  are  being  shipped  in  ever  increasing  quanti- 
ties to  our  armies  in  Europe.  The  bases  are  the 
ports  of  America.  The  battle  fields  are  in  Europe. 
The  sea  intervenes.  Over  it  the  men  of  the  sea  must 
sail  the  supply  ships.  A  great  emergency  fleet  is  now 
being  built.  Thousands  of  skilled  seamen ,  seafaring 
men  of  all  capacities  who  left  the  sea  in  years  gone 
by  as  a  protest  against  the  serfdom  from  which  no 
flag  then  offered  relief,  have  now  an  opportunity  to 
return  to  their  former  calling,  sail  as  free  men  and 
serve  our  country. 

Your  old  shipmates  —  men  who  remained  with  the  ship 
to  win  the  new  status  for  our  craft  —  now  call  upon  you  to 
again  stand  by  for  duty.  Your  help  is  needed  to  prove  that  no 
enemy  on  the  seas  can  stop  the  ships  of  the  nation  whose  sea- 
men bear  the  responsibility  of  liberty. 

America  has  the  right,  a  far  greater  right  than 
any  other  nation,  to  call  upon  the  seamen  of  all  the 
world  for  service.  By  responding  to  this  call  now 
you  can  demonstrate  your  practical  appreciation  of 
freedom  won. 

All  men  of  seafaring  experience  can  get  further  information 
on  this  subject  by  applying  to  any  representative  of  the  United 
States  Shipping  Board  or  to  any  officer  or  representative  of  the 
International  Seamen's  Union  of  America,  or  any  of  its  district 
organizations.  It  should  be  understood  that  this  statement  is 
not  issued  because  of  any  real  shortage  of  men  at  this  time. 
We  must  be  prepared,  however,  to  man  the  great  new  merchant 
fleet  now  building.  Men  must  be  ready  and  in  training.  It  is 
in  recognition  of  this  need  that  we,  as  a  duty  to  the  nation, 
submit  this  call  to  all  seamen. 

INTERNATIONAL  SEAMEN'S  UNION 
OF  AMERICA. 


SEAMEN 

Know  Thyself  and  Thine  True  Place  Among  Men. 


No  calling  demands  a  higher  mental  and  physical  stand- 
ard in  the  men  employed.  No  calling  has  given  any  better 
service  to  civilization  and  to  humanity.  No  calling  has  any 
right  to  higher  consideration  or  greater  honor,  none  has 
given  or  is  giving  more  important  service  in  peace  or  war. 
In  the  days  of  chivalry  the  men  of  the  sea  had  a  right  to 
and  did  participate  in  its  highest  honors. 


THROUGH  THE  AGES. 

Sea  power  has  at  all  times  meant  World  power.  Control  over 
the  sea  has  at  all  times  brought  independence  and  wealth.  Sea  power 
was  always  in  the  seamen.  The  vessels  (the  tools  used)  have  been 
altered  and  improved  upon  as  experience  and  knowledge  increased. 
But  the  sea  has  remained  unchanged  through  all  the  ages.  So  also  the 
seamen.  The  qualities  of  mind  and  body  that  were  needed  in  the 
seamen  of  the  earliest  times  are  yet  needed  and  there  can  be  no  real 
seamen  where  those  qualities  are  not.  The  sea  has  been  a  prison 
wall  to  the  weak  and  timid,  a  highway  to  the  strong  and  a  field  of 
honor  to  the  daring  and  venturesome  among  men.  The  sea  has  no 
affinity  with  bondage  and  whether  it  was  in  trade,  in  discovery,  or 
in  battle  the  victory  was  to  the  free. 

The  sea  power  of  the  Nordic  Race  was  developed  in  freedom. 
The  seamen  of  this  race  knew  nothing  of  bondage  as  applied  to 
themselves.  The  common  hazzard  made  them  loyal  to  each  other 
and  ready  to  obey  orders  from  their  leaders.  They  were  patient  of 
discipline,  impatient  of  bondage.  The  sea  power  of  the  North  de- 
veloped in  and  by  this  spirit  grew  strong  enough  to  meet  and  over- 
come the  sea  power  of  Rome,  which  had  destroyed  the  sea  power 
of  Carthage,  whose  seamen  were  and  felt  themselves  to  be  less  free. 
The  South  of  Europe  never  knew  the  kind  of  freedom  that  was  the 
very  breath  of  life  with  the  people  of  the  North.  The  seamen  of  the 
South  always  shared  in  that  misfortune  with  other  people  of  the 
South.  ^  -  <  >  ,  i  i 


The  social  reconstruction  which  resulted  from  Christian  teachings 
gave  to  the  seaman  of  the  South  greater  freedom  than  they  had  en- 
joyed, but  when  it  was  carried  overland  to  the  North  by  the  mis- 
sionaries it  resulted  in  depriving  the  seaman  of  the  North  of  much 
of  the  freedom  to  which  he  had  been  accustomed  and  which  had  been 
the  real  source  of  his  strength. 

In  the  blending  of  the  two  systems  the  slaves  of  the  house  be- 
came the  children  of  the  house;  the  free  men  of  the  vessel  became 
the  children  of  the  vessel.  Generally  speaking,  the  status  of  master 
and  servant  was  then  adopted.  On  shore  this  degenerated  into  serf- 
dom— the  tying  of  the  men  to  the  soil ;  at  sea — the  tying  of  the  seaman 
to  the  vessel.  For  a  long  period  of  time  the  tie  was  purely  legal. 
To  desert  was  a  crime  the  punishment  for  which  ranged  from  brand- 
ing on  the  forehead  with  red  hot  iron  to  the  imprisonment  of  more 
modern  days.  The  new  status  was  bitterly  resented  and  resisted  by 
the  seamen  and  they  deserted  in  great  numbers,  notwithstanding  the 
law  and  its  savage  penalties.  In  accordance  with  custom,  an  out- 
growth of  the  seamen's  freedom,  the  seamen  were  paid  their  wages 
or  share  of  the  earnings,  whenever  the  vessel's  freight  money  was 
paid.  The  seaman,  having  the  money  with  which  to  find  food  and 
shelter,  deserted  from  his  vessel  from  one  reason  or  another  until  the 
shipowners  of  France  bethought  themselves  of  the  fact  that  a  desti- 
tute man  is  very  helpless  in  a  strange  country  or  port  and  they  pe- 
titioned the  King  (Louis  the  Fourteenth)  to  forbid  the  payment  of 
any  of  the  seaman's  wages  except  at  the  home  port,  when  his  con- 
tract of  service  was  at  an  end.  The  King  complied  and  other  Nations 
promptly  followed.  Thus  was  economic  power  added  to  the  legal 
power  to  keep  the  seaman  bound  to  his  vessel. 

But  the  seaman,  during  the  so-called  dark  ages,  did  never  fall 
into  the  complete  servitude  that  became  the  lot  of  the  toiler  on  land. 
When  he  came  to  the  home  port  he  was  free.  No  man  was  then  his 
master.  This  freedom  together  with  the  employer's  need  for  highly 
trained  men  with  the  spirit  needed  to  defend  the  vessel  from  pirates 
as  well  as  from  the  dangers  of  the  sea  made  the  economic  and  social 
position  of  the  seaman  superior  to  that  of  his  fellow  toiler  on  shore. 
The  social  standing  of  seaman  was  such  that  women  would  marry 
him ;  his  economic  condition  was  such  that  he  could  give  decent  sup- 
port to  a  family.  During  this  period  no  boy  or  young  man  lost  caste 
by  going  to  sea.  Let  it  be  distinctly  understood  that  it  was  the 
special  skill  and  the  qualities  of  body  and  mind  needed  in  the  sea- 
man that  protected  him  from  the  rapacity  of  his  employer.  Where 
this  was  not  understood  and  the  seaman  thereby  protected,  or  the 
statesmen  of  the  time  did  not  realize  the  National  importance  of  a 
body  of  national  seamen,  the  condition  became  such  that  men  re- 
fused to  seek  or  to  continue  in  the  calling  and  then  sea  power  passed 
from  that  Nation.  Thus  sea  power  was  lost  to  the  Hanseatic  League, 
to  Spain  and  to  Holland.  Wiser  statesmen  fostered  seamanship  by 
giving  at  least  by  comparison  a  better  chance  to  the  seaman  and 
were  thereby  able  to  gain  and  to  keep  control  of  the  sea. 

In  substance  the  law  governing  the  British  seamen  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  was  the  scroll  of  Oleron.  This  was  the 
freest  of  all  the  statutes  of  that  time  except  the  one  upon  which  it 


was  largely  modeled,  the  old  law  of  Norway  and  of  the  Norsemen 
generally.  In  their  southward  travel  the  Norse  seamen  carried  with 
them  their  own  laws  and  customs.  In  the  law  of  Oleron  the  seamen 
are  called  the  Companions  of  the  vessel — not  the  children  of  the  ves- 
sel. It  was  under  the  freedom  of  this  law  that  the  British  seamen 
destroyed  the  Armada  and  made  their  country  the  Mistress  of  the 
Sea  and  of  the  world.  About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  British  seamen  lost  the  right  to  freedom  in  the  home  ports  under 
certain  conditions  and  the  law  for  the  impressment  of  seamen  was 
enacted. 

The  law  was  brought  in  by  the  Government  and  was  opposed  by 
Lord  Chatham,  who  in  opposition  in  part  spoke  as  follows: 


"Sir,  the  two  honorable  and  learned  gentlemen  who  spoke  in 
favor  of  the  clause  were  pleased  to  show  that  our  seamen  are  half 
slaves  already,  and  now  they  modestly  desire  that  you  shall  make 
them  wholly  so.  Will  this  increase  your  number  of  seamen,  or  will 
it  make  those  you  have  more  willing  to  serve  you?  Can  you  expect 
that  any  man  will  make  himself  a  slave  if  he  can  avoid  it?  Can 
you  expect  that  any  man  will  breed  his  child  to  foe  a  slave?  Can 
you  expect  that  seamen  will  venture  their  lives  or  their  limbs  for  a 
country  that  has  made  them  slaves?  Or  can  you  expect  that  any 
seaman  will  stay  in  the  country  if  he  can  by  any  means  make  his 
escape?  Sir,  if  you  pass  this  law  you  must,  in  my  opinion,  do  with 
your  seamen  as  they  do  with  their  galley  slaves  in  France — you 
must  chain  them  to  their  ships  or  chain  them  in  couples  when  they 
go  on  shore." 

Great  Britain  found  to  its  sorrow,  if  not  to  the  improvement  of 
its  understanding,  that  Lord  Chatham  was  right.  The  seamen  of 
England  so  deeply  resented  the  loss  of  their  accustomed  freedom  that 
they  deserted  the  country  in  very  large  numbers  and  fought  under 
the  American  flag  against  England,  they  sailed  in  American  vessels 
in  such  large  numbers  that  England  found  it  necessary  to  search 
American  vessels  on  the  high  seas  and  to  forcibly  take  the  men 
back  in  order  to  compel  them  to  serve  again  in  the  vessels  of  their 
country.  This  resulted  in  a  war  with  the  United  States  and  again 
British  seamen  were  found  fighting  under  the  American  flag  against 
their  native  land.  It  had  not  yet  sunk  into  their  consciousness  that 
the  United  States  in  1791  had  adopted  laws  fully  as  drastic  and  op- 
pressive as  the  laws  of  England.  Later  it  was  found  necessary,  as 
Lord  Chatham  had  predicted,  to  enter  into  treaties  between  the  dif- 
ferent nations  to  arrest,  detain  and  surrender  the  deserters  back  to 
their  vessels.  Not  much  difference  between  this  and  to  "chain  them 
to  their  ships,  or  chain  them  in  couples  when  they  go  on  shore." 
The  ship  owner  and  the  trader  were  writing  the  laws.  Small  was 
the  attention  given  to  the  warning  voices  of  statesmen  or  even  to 
the  voices  of  the  most  distinguished  of  the  admirals  in  the  service  of 
the  different  nations.  The  French  Revolution  did  not  stop  it,  the 
abolition  of  slavery  and  of  serfdom  did  not  end  it.  The  sane  view  of 
the  tentative  draft  of  the  report  of  the  British  Manning  Commission 
of  1896  was  obliterated  by  it  It  remained  strong  up  to  the  present 
war. 


Modern  Times. 

The  French  Revolution  abolished  the  serfdom  of  men  on  shore 
in  all  the  countries  that  were  overrun  by  the  armies  of  France.  The 
spirit  of  the  Revolution  seized  upon  other  countries  with  the  same 
result  until  slavery,  serfdom  and  involuntary  servitude  was  abolished 
in  all  so-called  Christian  Nations;  but  this  emancipation  did  not  in- 
clude the  seamen.  The  status  of  seamen  remained  unchanged  with 
terrible  results  to  the  seamen  and  serious  consequences  to  the  white 
race. 

The  seamen  held  in  the  shackles  of  their  status  were  unable  to 
follow  the  upward  trend  of  •  society.  Their  real  earning  capacity 
diminished  so  that  they  were  no  longer  able  to  support  a  family. 
Their  former  social  standing  was  destroyed  so  completely  that  a 
humanitarian  organization  made  up  of  good  men  and  women,  in  an 
official  yearly  report,  stated  that  "they  had,  during  that  year,  accom- 
plished much  good  among  criminals,  prostitutes  and  seamen." 

Legal  and  economic  provisions  of  law  having  been  adopted  by 
Governments  to  keep  the  seaman  tied  to  the  vessel,  the  seaman 
nevertheless  deserted.  He  found  men  on  shore,  who  for  their  gain 
were  willing  to  hide  him  from  the  peace  officers  who  were  instructed 
to  find  him  to  detain  and  return  him  to  his  vessel  or  to  send  him  to 
prison  for  months.  The  seaman  was  willing  to  give  part  of  the 
wages  to  be  earned  in  the  next  vessel  in  order  that  he  might  be  free 
from  the  vessel  on  which  he  was  working.  The  owners  of  vessels 
were  willing  to  pay  such  advance  and  to  add  thereto  a  premium,  later 
called  "blood  money,"  in  order  to  escape  delay.  Thus  was  "crimp- 
ing" established.  It  grew  out  of  the  seaman's  status  and  the  sea- 
man's desire  for  freedom.  Later  it  was  reversed.  A  combination 
of  the  crimp  and  the  ship-owner  was  perfected  through  which  the 
seaman  lost  nearly  all  his  wages,  which  were  then  divided  between 
the  crimp,  the  master  and  at  times  the  owner.  When,  as  was  often 
the  case,  the  seaman's  wages  were  not  sufficient  to  pay  what  was  con- 
sidered a  fair  profit,  "blood  money"  was  added  and  this  was  again 
divided  with  the  master  and  at  times  with  the  managing  owner. 

The  Union  of  Seamen. 

Notwithstanding  the  apparently  insurmountable  obstacles,  an 
organization  was  formed  by  the  seamen.  The  purpose  was  to  im- 
prove the  condition  of  the  seamen,  to  halt  the  decay  of  seamanship 
and  to  reconquer  for  the  seaman  his  true  position  in  human  society. 
Individually  they  knew  themselves  to  be  powerless;  but  they  had 
faith  that  collectively  they  could  accomplish  the  purposes  for  which 
they  were  organizing.  Collectively  seamen  had  in  the  past  been  the 
main  factors  in  destroying  or  in  building  and  maintaining  Empires, 
why  might  they  not  then  by  collective  effort  be  able  to  redeem  their 
own  calling?  The  work  of  a  seaman  had  always  been  important, 
and  until  in  the  comparatively  recent  past  it  had  been  honorable. 
That  it  had  not  remained  so  had  its  origin  in  actions  of  men  on 
shore,  action  in  which  the  teamen:  had  no  ihare  except  that  they  had 


not  come  together  for  the  purpose  of  collectively  resisting  and  over- 
coming the  evil.  The  declaration  of  rights,  duties  and  purposes 
adopted  by  the  union  reads  partly  as  follows: 

"First  of  these  rights  is  the  right  of  each  member  to  receive 
a  fair  and  just  remuneration  for  his  labor,  and  to  gain  sufficient 
leisure  for  mental  cultivation  and  physical  recreation." 

"Further,  we  consider  it  our  right  to  demand  healthy  and  suffi- 
cient food  and  proper  forecastles  in  which  to  rest." 

"Next  is  the  right  to  be  treated  in  a  decent  and  respectful 
manner  by  those  in  command." 

"Next  is  the  right  of  engagement  without  the  interference  of 
crimps  or  other  parties  not  directly  interested." 

"Recognizing  the  above  as  our  inalienable  rights,  we  are  con- 
scious of  corresponding  duties  to  those  in  command,  our  employers, 
our  craft  and  our  Country." 

"We  will  therefore  try  by  all  just  means  to  promote  har- 
monious relations  with  those  in  command  by  exercising  due  dili- 
gence in  the  performance  of  the  duties  of  our  profession,  and  by 
giving  all  possible  assistance  to  our  employers  in  caring  for  their 
gear  and  property." 

"To  regulate  our  conduct  as  a  Union  and  as  individuals  so  as 
to  make  seamanship  what  it  has  a  right  to  be — one  of  the  most 
honored  of  professions." 

"Based  upon  these  principles,  it  is  among  our  objects  to  use 
pur  influence  individually  and  collectively  for  the  purpose  of  effect- 
ing a  change  in  the  Maritime  law  of  the  United  States,  so  as  to 
render  it  more  equitable  and  to  make  it  an  aid  instead  of  a  hin- 
drance to  the  development  of  a  Merchant  Marine  and  a  body  of 
American  seamen." 

These  were  some  of  the  promises  which  we  made  to  ourselves 
when  organizing.  These  were  among  the  ideals  which  we  made  our 
own  to  which  we  consecrated  our  movement  and  it  is  by  our  faith- 
fulness to  these  ideals  that  we  are  to  be  judged.  To  desecrate  these 
ideals,  to  fail  in  faithfully  struggling  to  live  according  to  them  is  a 
sin  the  penalty  for  which  is  death.  Being  and  remaining  true  to  pur 
fundamental  purposes  we  shall  find  that  we  are  just  beginning  to  live. 

It  is  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  these  ideals  and  purposes  more 
clearly  home  to  the  minds  of  seamen  and  those  who  would  be  seamen 
that  this  booklet  is  printed  and  distributed  among  the  seamen  for 
careful  reading  and  serious  thought. 

We  have  tried  to  be  true.  We  have  endeavored  to  keep  the  faith. 
In  the  darkest  hours  we  learned  at  least  partially?  how  "to  labor  and 
to  wait."  We  have  defended  the  non-union  man  in  the  Courts  and 
elsewhere,  we  have  tried  to  get  all  the  seamen  together,  we  have 
fought  with  the  ship  owner  and  the  crimp,  we  have  appealed  to  the 
public  and  to  the  law-making  powers  for  justice  and  equal  rights 
with  other  toilers;  but  we  never  begged  bread  from  friend  or  mercy 
from  foe. 

Progress  of  Legislation. 

On  February  18,  1895,  we  obtained  some  improvement  in  the 
coastwise  trade  through  the  enactment  of  the  "Maguire  Act."  We 
believed  that  we  had  become  free  in  ports  of  the  United  States;  but 
when  our  members  sought  to  exercise  that  freedom  they  were  ar- 

7 


rested,  detained  in  prison  and  returned  to  the  vessel — the  "Arago." 
They  refused  to  work  and  were  delivered  to  the  Court  for  punish- 
ment. We  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  and 
we  were  told  that  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  had  no  application  to  seamen.  We  appealed  to 
Congress  again  and  through  the  passage  of  the  "White  Act,"  De- 
cember 21,  1898,  our  right  to  the  ownership  of  our  own  bodies  while 
in  ports  of  the  United  States  was  granted  by  law.  Several  other  im- 
portant improvements  were  granted.  Crimping  was  abolished  in  the 
coastwise  trade  and  to  nearby  foreign  countries.  It  was  minimized  in 
the  foreign  trade.  Corporal  punishment  was  forbidden  and  the  food 
materially  improved  in  all  trades;  but  the  status  of  serfdom  was 
continued  in  the  foreign  trade  and  while  this  system  remained  prac- 
tically all  laws  for  the  protection  of  seamen  were  null  and  void.  The 
seaman  must  be  free,  legally  and  economically  free,  or  his  status  will 
so  taint  his  testimony  that  any  law  the  enforcement  of  which  depends 
upon  evidence  taken  from  the  seaman,  will  remain  practically  in- 
operative. For  these  reasons  several  of  the  beneficient  clauses  of  the 
"White  Act"  failed  to  give  the  relief  expected  in  the  oversea  trade. 
We  continued  our  struggle  for  legislative  relief.  But  the  law  now 
governing  the  seaman  is  the  product  of  the  active  self  interest  of  the 
ship  owner  and  merchant  working  through  the  centuries  restrained 
only  by  the  interest  of  the  State  as  seen  by  the  statesmen.  It  is 
practically  the  same  in  all  so-called  civilized  Nations.  The  emanci- 
pation must  come  to  all  seamen,  hence  the  following  appeal,  which 
was  adopted  by  us  in  1909,  and  by  the  Transport  Workers'  Congress 
at  Copenhagen,  in  1910: 

Appeal  to  the  World. 

"To  those  who  govern  nations,  to  those  who  make  the  laws, 
to  humanitarians,  democrats,  Christians,  and  friends  of  human  free- 
dom everywhere,  do  we,  the  seamen,  the  yet  remaining  bondmen, 
humbly  yet  earnestly  submit  this  our  petition,  that  we  be  made  free 
men,  and  that  the  blighting  disgrace  of  bondage  be  removed  from 
our  labor,  which  once  was  considered  honorable,  which  is  yet 
needed  in  the  world  of  commerce,  and  which  has  been  held  to  be  of 
great  importance  to  nations  with  seacoasts  to  defend. 

"Existing  maritime  law  makes  of  seamen,  excepting  in  the 
domestic  trade  of  the  United  States,  the  property  of  the  vessel  on 
which  we  sail  We  cannot  work  as  seamen  without  signing  a  con- 
tract which  brings  us  under  the  law.  This  contract  is  fixed  by  law 
or  authorized  by  governments.  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  its 
terms.  We  either  sign  it  and  sail,  or  we  sign  it  not  and  remain 
landsmen. 

"When  signing  this  contract,  we  surrender  our  working  power 
to  the  will  of  another  man  at  all  times  while  the  contract  runs.  We 
may  not,  on  pain  of  penal  punishment,  fail  to  join  the  vessel.  We 
may  not  leave  the  vessel,  though  she  is  in  perfect  safety.  We  may 
not,  without  our  master's  permission,  go  to  a  mother's  sick  bed  or 
funeral,  or  attend  to  any  other  duties  of  a  son,  a  brother,  a  Chris- 
tian, or  a  citizen,  excepting  in  the  domestic  trade  of  the  United! 
States. 

"If  the  owner  thinks  he  has  reason  to  fear  that  we  desire  to 
escape,  he  may,  without  judicial  investigation,  cause  us  to  be  impris- 
oned for  safe-keeping  until  he  shall  think  proper  to  take  us  out.  If 
we  have  escaped,  he  may  publish  our  personal  appearance  along  with 
a  reward  for  our  apprehension  and  return.  He  may,  through  con- 
tracts between  nations,  cause  the  peace  officers  and  police  to  aid 


him  in  recovering  his  property.  The  Captain  may  change,  the 
owner  may  change— we  are  sold  with  the  vessel — but  so  long  as 
the  flag  does  not  change,  there  is  nothing  except  serious  illness 
or  our  master's  pleasure  that  will  release  us  from  the  vessel. 

"The  master,  acting  for  the  vessel,  may  release  himself  and  the 
vessel  by  paying  a  few  dollars,  with  no  alternative. 

"He  that  owns  another  man's  labor  power  owns  his  body,  since 
the  two  cannot  be  separated. 

"We  stand  hi  the  same  relation  to  the  vessel  as  the  serf  did  to 
the  estate,  as  the  slave  to  his  master.  When  serfdom  was  abolished 
in  Western  Europe  we  were  forgotten  by  the  liberators  and  our 
status  remained.  When  the  slaves  of  the  United  States  and  Brazil 
were  emancipated  our  status  continued.  When  serfdom  was  abol- 
ished in  Russia  no  change  came  to  us. 

"We  now  raise  our  manacled  hands  in  humble  supplication  and 
pray  that  the  nations  issue  a  decree  of  emancipation  and  restore  to 
us  our  right  as  brother  men;  to  our  labor  that  honor  which 
belonged  to  it  until  your  power,  expressing  itself  through  your  law, 
set  upon  it  the  brand  of  bondage  in  the  interest  of  cheap  transpor- 
tation by  water. 

"We  respectfully  submit  that  the  serfdom  of  the  men  in  our 
calling  is  of  comparatively  modern  origin.  Earlier  maritime  law 
bound,  while  in  strange  countries  and  climes,  the  seaman  to  his 
shipmates  and  the  ship,  and  the  ship  to  him,  on  the  principle  of 
common  hazard.  In  his  own  country  he  was  free-— the  freest  of 
men.  We  further  humbly  submit  that,  as  the  consciousness  of  the 
seaman's  status  penetrates  through  the  population,  it  will  be  impos- 
sible to  get  freemen  to  send  their  sons  into  bondage  or  to  induce 
freemen's  sons  to  accept  it,  and  we,  in  all  candor,  remind  you  that 
you,  when  you  travel  by  water,  expect  us — the  serfs — to  exhibit  in 
(danger  the  highest  qualities  of  freemen  by  giving  our  lives  for  your 
safety. 

At  sea  the  law  of  common  hazard  remains.  There  must  be 
discipline  and  self-sacrifice,  but  in  any  harbor  the  vessel  and  you 
are  safe,  and  we  beseech  you  give  to  us  that  freedom  which  you 
claim  for  yourself  and  which  you  have  bestowed  on  others,  to  the 
end  that  we  may  be  relieved  of  that  bitterness  of  soul  that  is  the 
heavy  burden  of  him  who  knows  and  feels  that  his  body  is  not  his 
own. 

After  the  International  Transport  Workers'  Congress  had  adopted 
the  above  appeal,  the  Managing  Committee  of  that  Congress  was 
instructed  to  see  that  it  was  sent  to  the  several  Governments  and 
law-making  assemblies  of  the  world. 

We,  in  the  United  States  went  on  with  our  struggle  in  the  usual 
way,  having  re-introduced  our  bill  at  each  succeeding  Congress.  We 
sought  and  obtained  hearings  before  the  Committees  of  the  U.  S. 
Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  to  which  the  bill  was  referred. 
We  sent  in  petitions  from  such  organizations  and  individuals  as  were 
sufficiently  interested  to  act,  and  we  submitted  memorials  of  which 
the  following,  presented  by  Hon.  William  B.  Wilson,  of  Pennsyl- 
vania (now  the  Secretary  of  Labor),  who  was  the  introducer  of  the 
bill  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  is  without  doubt  the  most 
specific  and  urgent: 

Memorial  to  Congress. 

To  the  Honorable  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 

United  States: 

On  behalf  of  the  seamen  your  petitioners  respectfully  represent 
that— 


While  the  existing  discrimination  against  the  seamen  is  per- 
mitted to  continue  the  United  States  can  not  become  a  sea  power; 
that  native  Americans  will  not  become  seamen;  and  that  the  differ- 
ential in  wage  cost  of  operation  will  prevent  American  vessels  from 
competing  on  the  ocean. 

First  "No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  hi  one  State,  under 
the  laws  thereof,  escaping  into  any  other,  shall,  in  consequence  of 
any  law  or  regulation  therein,  be  discharged  from  such  service  or 
labor,  but  shall  be  delivered  up  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such 
service  or  labor  may  be  due."  (Art.  IV,  Sec.  2,  subsec.  3,  Consti- 
tution.) 

Under  authority  of  this  section  Congress  in  1791  passed  the 
law  giving  to  the  ship  power  to  enforce  contracts  made  with  seamen 
upon  the  seamen's  body.  This  law — the  fugitive-sailor  law — in  1793 
served  as  a  model  for  the  fugitive-slave  law. 

Under  authority,  presumably,  of  this  section  the  United  States 
entered  into  treaties  with  foreign  nations  for  mutual  arrest,  deten- 
tion, and  delivery  of  deserted  seamen  to  their  vessels. 

In  1865  the  following  amendment  to  the  Constitution  was 
adopted: 

"Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  punish- 
ment for  crime  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted, 
shall  exist  within  the  United  States  or  any  place  subject  to  their 
jurisdiction."  (Thirteenth  amendment,  Constitution.) 

In  1867  the  statutes  were  revised,  and  all  compulsory  labor, 
except  as  applicable  to  seamen,  was  stricken  out,  and  in  1872  the 
laws  compelling  seamen  to  labor  for  a  private  person  were  made 
more  drastic. 

Under  the  treaties  with  foreign  nations  and  these  laws  seamen, 
having  signed  contracts  to  labor  hi  countries  having  a  lower  stand- 
ard of  life  and  a  lower  wage,  were  forcibly  compelled  to  continue 
to  labor  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States. 

This  produced  a  difference  in  the  wage  cost  of  operating  ves- 
sels taking  cargoes  from  ports  of  the  United  States,  the  difference 
being  all  in  favor  of  the  foreign  vessel  and  sufficient  in  amount  to 

S-adually  drive  domestic  vessels  from  the  ocean.  (Testimony, 
erchant  Marine  Commission.) 

In  1896  the  seamen,  believing  that  they  came  within  the  pro- 
tection of  the  thirteenth  amendment,  took  this  question  to  the 
Supreme  Court,  but  in  Robertson  vs.  Baldwin  (165  U.  S.,  p.  275), 
the  court  held  that  the  thirteenth  amendment  had  no  application  to 
seamen,  Justice  Harlan  filing  an  elaborate  dissenting  opinion,  which 
resulted  in  abolishing  the  involuntary  servitude  of  seamen  in  the 
domestic  trade.  (Act  Dec.  21,  1898.) 

In  1911  the  Supreme  Court  again  had  occasion  to  construe  the 
thirteenth  amendment.  In  the  case  of  Baily  vs.  State  of  Alabama 
(219  U.  S.,  p.  219),  the  court  decided  (we  quote  from  the  syllabus) : 

"While  its  immediate  concern  was  African  slavery,  the  thir- 
teenth amendment  was  a  charter  of  universal  freedom  for  all  per- 
sons of  whatever  race,  color,  or  estate  under  the  flag";  and 

"The  words  'involuntary  servitude*  have  a  larger  meaning  than 
slavery,  and  the  thirteenth  amendment  prohibited  all  control  by 
coercion  of  the  personal  service  of  one  man  for  the  benefit  of 
another." 

We  respectfully  submit  that  we  are  persons  and  that  we  are 
within  and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States;  and 

That  Congress  should  now  repeal  all  laws  and  abrogate  all 
treaties  under  which  we  are  subject  to  arrest,  detention,  and 
delivery  to  any  man  in  order  that  he  may  compel  us  to  labor  for 
his  benefit" 

As  a  sufficient  answer  to  our  pleadings  the  ship  owners  sub- 
mitted the  fact  that  the  American  merchant  marine  could  not  com- 
pete in  the  highly  competitive  oversea  commerce  because  of  the 
higher  wage  cost  in  operating  vessels,  which  obtained  their  crews 

10 


in  American  ports.  They  further  insisted  that  any  serious  improve- 
ment in  the  condition  of  seamen  or  any  raise  in  his  wages  by  any 
one  Nation  would  make  such  Nation  unable  to  compete  with  the 
others.  They  maintained  that  to  pass  the  Seamen's  Bill  was  to 
legislate  the  remainder  of  the  American  vessels  from  the  ocean. 
They  could  see  no  relief  in  the  competition  except  a  reduction  in 
the  seamen's  wages  to  the  lowest  point  reached  by  their  competitors. 
We  insisted  that  to  free  the  seaman  was  to  equalize  the  wage  cost, 
and  that  unless  such  action  be  taken  the  vessels  of  Occidental  Na- 
tions as  well  as  their  men,  will  be  driven  from  the  sea.  Oriental 
races  have  men  from  whom  seamen  can  be  made.  Seamanship,  as 
we  understand  it,  is  now  being  developed  in  the  Orient.  Orientals 
sail  the  vessels  as  well  as  sailing  in  them.  This  was  fully  under- 
stood by  Senator  Robert  M.  La  Follette,  who  introduced  the  bill  in 
the  Senate  and  who  was  tireless  in  his  struggle  to  have  it  adopted. 
It  was  very  well  understood  by  Senator  Sutherland,  who  submitted 
the  following  for  the  Record  and  caused  it  to  be  printed  as  a  Senate 
Document.  The  general  interest  had  been  greatly  stimulated  by  the 
loss  of  the  Titanic  with  a  loss  of  some  sixteen  hundred  lives,  many 
of  the  lost  passengers  being  distinguished  men  from  Europe  and 
from  this  country: 

The  Decay  of  Seamanship  in  Europe  and  America. 

Senate  Document  No.  216.    63d  Congress.    October  23,  1913. 

"The  Caucasian  is  leaving  the  sea;  the  Oriental  is  filling  the 
vacancy.  Sea  power  is  in  the  seamen ;  vessels  are  the  seamen's  work- 
ing tools;  tools  become  the  property  of  those  who  handle  them. 

"This  is  not  prophecy ;  it  is  a  fact.  If  the  reader  needs  proofs  let 
him  visit  the  docks  where  the  ocean  cargo  carrier — the  tramp — is 
taking  in  or  delivering  cargo.  He  will  find  that  while  the  officers  are 
white,  the  sailors  and  firemen  are  very  largely  from  the  races  which 
inhabit  Africa,  Asia,  and  the  Malay  islands.  If  he  be  fond  of  statistics 
and  knows  the  way  they  are  made  up  as  to  hide  from  John  Bull  the 
loss  of  his  sea  legs — the  decay  of  his  sea  power — let  him  examine  the 
reports  issued  from  year  to  year  by  the  Board  of  Trade.  If  he  be 
told  that  the  tendency  is  sporadic  let  him  ask  the  boys  along  the  sea- 
coasts  of  Europe  and  America  north  of  the  Mexican  line,  what  they 
are  going  to  be  when  they  grow  up,  and  the  answers  will  be  truly 
illuminating.  Let  him  ask  the  seamen  if  they  will  accept  a  job  on 
shore  and  he  will  find  that  they  are  willing  to  accept  anything  to  get 
away  from  the  sea.  The  men  are  leaving  the  sea ;  the  boys  are  shun- 
ning it. 

"The  compelling  cause  of  this  drift  from  the  sea  is  a  great  wrong, 
which  can  only  be  cured  by  legislation.  National  commissions  and 
international  conferences  have  sat  and  inquired  into  losses  of  life  at 
sea.  They  have  reported  vessels  to  be  undermanned,  both  in  in- 
dividual skill  and  in  numbers  of  seamen  employed.  Recommenda- 
tions have  been  made  and  forgotten.  The  "General  Slocum"  was 
lost  with  about  1,000  lives;  the  coroner's  jury  said,  'Inefficient  crew'; 
the  commission  appointed  added,  'Not  enough  life  preservers,  ineffi- 
cient inspection.'  The  net  result  was  more  life  preservers,  better  in- 

11 


spcction,  but  no  improvement  in  the  crews.  The  'Titanic'  was  lost. 
The  senatorial  commission  said,  'Not  enough  life-boats,  the  crew  in- 
efficient in  skill  and  number/  There  are  some  more  life-boats,  but 
no  more  or  better  men.  The  drift  from  the  sea  is  growing  and  safety 
diminishing,  while  vessels  are  steadily  growing  larger.  Seamen  have 
sought  proper  legislation  in  vain  for  more  than  20  years.  Congress 
after  Congress  has  been  appealed  to,  but  without  substantial  results. 
The  seamen  are  poor;  they  are  lowly;  few  of  them  are  voters;  fewer 
still  can  vote,  being  at  sea ;  they  have  nothing  with  which  to  quicken 
sympathy  and  induce  action  except  their  plainly  told  tale.  And  yet 
the  questions  arising  from  the  drift  from  the  sea  are  of  great  racial 
importance,  they  are  of  great  national  importance,  they  are  of  great 
economic  importance,  and  of  serious  personal  importance  to  those 
who  travel  the  sea  for  business  or  pleasure.  The  cause  of  the  drift 
from  the  sea  is  simple,  the  remedy  easy  if  honestly  applied. 

"(1)  When  a  citizen  becomes  a  seaman  he  surrenders  all  rights 
of  citizenship,  he  voluntarily  places  himself  outside  of  the  protection 
of  the  thirteenth  amendment  to  the  Constitution. 

"(2)  He  accepts  and  surrenders  to  the  plenary  power  of  Con- 
gress and  the  President  his  personal  freedom,  the  wages  he  has  earned, 
the  work  he  is  to  do  and  with  whom  he  is  to  do  it,  and  thereby  un- 
reasonably increases  the  burden  of  his  toil  and  the  risks,  naturally 
and  unavoidably  great,  to  his  life. 

"One  century  since,  the  status  of  the  worker  was  either  that  of 
a  slave,  a  serf,  or  one  who  labored  under  term  contracts  enforcible  by 
imprisonment.  The  seaman  belonged  to  the  last-named  class.  Be- 
ing among  the  freest  of  the  workers  his  social  and  industrial  condition 
was,  in  comparison  with  the  others,  favorable.  Other  causes  con- 
tribute to  this  result. 

"(1)  The  ship-owner  might  lose  his  all  through  local  riots  or 
other  social  disturbances  in  port,  through  piracy  or  other  dangers  of 
the  sea. 

"(2)  He  was  liable  to  the  traveler  and  the  shipper  for  the  amount 
of  damages  caused  if  traceable  to  him  not  being  'acts  of  God*  or  'the 
public  enemy.' 

"The  self-interest  of  the  ship-owner  was  sufficient  to  cause  him 
to  carry  men  skilled  in  their  calling,  acquainted  with  the  use  of  arms, 
physically  able  to  use  them,  and  with  sufficient  courage  to  defend  and 
protect  their  employer's  property,  whether  the  attack  came  from  men 
or  from  natural  elements.  The  ship-owner  appreciated  this  to  the 
extent  of  obtaining  legislation  which  gave  him  the  power  to  punish 
the  laggard  or  to  reduce  the  incompetent  in  rating  and  wages,  ac- 
cording to  his  demerit.  The  shipowner  still  has  this  power.  He 
was  bound  by  law  to  carry  a  national  crew  either  in  whole  or  in 
part.  These  conditions  compelled  him  to  look  for  his  workmen 
among  his  own  people,  amongst  the  strong,  the  healthy,  and  the 
skilled.  If  he  employed  his  slaves  or  serfs  they  became  free. 

"These  several  causes  worked  automatically  toward  a  wage  rate 
under  which  the  seaman  could  and  did  keep  a  family  in  as  much 
well-being  as  the  average  skilled  mechanic. 

"During  the  last  century  a  great  change  came  over  society. 
Slavery  and  serfdom  were  abolished;  term  contracts  to  labor,  en- 

12 


forcible  by  imprisonment  either  by  law  or  in  equity,  were  abolished 
here  in  the  United  States  and  in  some  countries  in  Europe,  while  in 
others  they  were  reduced  in  number  and  remained  applicable  only  on 
servants  in  houses  or  in  husbandry.  As  freedom  came  to  men  it 
carried  better  treatment  and  better  wages.  Wages  rose  gradually 
until  they  doubled,  trebled,  and  quadrupled;  the  legal  testimony  of 
the  worker  became  creditable,  being  untainted  by  his  status.  The 
seaman  was  not  permitted  to  share  in  any  of  these  changes;  his 
status  remained.  His  wages  stood  still  or  were  actually  lowered. 
The  cost  of  living  rose  with  the  advancement  of  the  wages ;  the  pur- 
chasing power  of  the  seaman's  wages  went  down  and  he  became 
unable  to  care  for  a  family. 

"Other  causes  contributed  to  this  result: 

"(1)  A  system  of  marine  insurance  was  perfected  through 
which  the  ship-owner  guarded  himself  from  the  dangers  of  the  sea 
and  distributed  the  losses  upon  the  general  community. 

"(2)  Limited  liability  laws  were  enacted  through  which  the 
main  risk  of  travel  fell  on  the  passenger,  the  risk  of  merchandise  in 
transit  upon  the  shipper,  who  through  the  insurance  shifted  it  to  the 
general  public. 

"(3)  Piracy  ceased  and  losses  through  revolts  or  revolutions 
became  collectible  from  the  nations  or  communities  held  responsible. 

"(4)  Lighthouses  were  built,  channels  marked,  deepened,  and 
widened,  storms  were  studied,  warnings  were  given,  and  navigation 
became  more  safe. 

"(5)  Laws  compelling  national  crews  were  repealed,  modified, 
or  disregarded. 

"Having  rid  himself  of  the  risk  by  insurance,  of  the  liability  by 
legislation,  and  of  limitation  as  to  the  nationality  of  the  men  employed 
through  the  repeal  of  laws,  the  ship-owner  cared  no  longer  for  skill, 
ability,  nationality,  or  race.  The  wages  to  be  paid  became  his  main 
consideration.  He  might  send  his  vessel  to  sea  with  men  none  of 
whom  were  trained  in  the  work  or  who  understood  without  an  in- 
terpreter the  orders  given.  The  seaman  was  compelled  to  compete 
with  the  unskilled  from  all  strata  in  society,  from  all  nations  and  all 
races,  and  when  at  sea  he  was  compelled  to  do  the  work  which  these 
men  could  not  do.  This  is  the  condition  today.  Hence,  the  increasing 
shipwrecks,  the  great  losses  of  life,  such  as  the  'General  Slocum,'  the 
'Elbe/  the  'La  Bourgoyne/  the  'City  of  Rio  de  Janeiro/  the  'Norge/ 
the  'Valencia/  the  'Oceana/  the  'Titanic/  and  almost  innumerable 
others;  hence,  also,  the  constant  increase  in  insurance  rates.  White 
men  are  leaving  the  sea.  Modern  education  and  the  worn  out,  an- 
cient status  can  not  continue  together.  Men  refuse  to  go  into  or  re- 
main in  any  calling,  which  will  not  furnish  sufficient  upon  which  a 
family  may  be  kept.  More  and  more  men  come  to  sea  as  does  the 
sewage.  Last  Congress  passed  a  law  providing  for  more  reasonable 
hours  of  labor  for  officers  of  vessels,  and  it  is  largely  disobeyed,  either 
secretly  or  openly,  with  the  excuse  that  the  ship-owners  can  not 
find  men  from  whom  officers  can  be  made.  Let  this  thing  continue  a 
few  more  years  and  the  Asiatic  will  have  to  be  accepted  on  the  bridge 
in  command,  because  none  others  will  be  available.  Men  from  the 
Mediterranean,  from  Arabia,  India,  and  South  Africa  sail  the  vessels 

13 


on  the  Atlantic;  men  from  China  and  Japan  sail  the  vessels  in  the 
trade  between  our  Pacific  ports  and  Asia.  The  number  of  Asiatics 
and  Africans  from  the  south  of  Africa  in  the  merchant  marine  of 
Great  Britain  is  about  100,000.  Norway,  with  her  former  surplus  of 
seamen,  has  not  enough  for  her  own  vessels,  and  the  number  is 
steadily  decreasing.  Germany's  seamen  come  from  the  interior  and 
are  diminishing.  The  drift  from  the  sea  on  the  part  of  the  Caucasian 
is  general  and  growing.  There  must  be  a  change;  it  must  be  funda- 
mental, and  it  must  be  soon,  or  the  sea  must  become  the  domain  of 
the  Oriental.  His  status  and  standard  of  living  corresponds  to  the 
status  and  earning  capacity  of  seamen  of  today. 

"These  facts  have  been  presented  to  Congress  after  Congress. 
The  seamen  have  been  met  with  the  answer  that  to  change  the  con- 
dition as  urged  would  be  to  still  more  widen  the  difference  in  the 
wage  cost  of  operation  now  existing  between  foreign  and  domestic 
vessels  taking  cargoes  or  passengers  from  American  ports  and  thus 
drive  the  few  remaining  American  vessels  from  the  ocean.  The  sea- 
men then  went  into  the  study  of  the  real  causes  of  the  differences  and 
found : 

"(1)  That  wages  are  determined  by  supply  and  demand.  That 
it  is  the  same  to  all  nations'  vessels  in  the  same  port  if  the  vessels  are 
going  in  the  same  or  a  similar  trade. 

"(2)  That  wages  are  dependent  upon  the  standard  of  wages  and 
of  living  in  the  port  and  in  the  territory  adjacent  thereto  and  upon 
the  port  to  which  the  vessels  are  going. 

"(3)  Upon  the  standard  of  skill  demanded  and  the  chances  of 
getting  away  from — deserting  from — the  vessel  at  her  port  of  destina- 
tion if  such  be  a  high-wage  port. 

"Thus,  it  was  found  that  when  a  Norwegian  ship-owner  wants 
men  to  join  a  vessel  sailing  between  ports  of  the  United  States  and 
the  West  Indies  or  Central  America  (the  fruit  steamers),  he  pays 
50  per  cent  more  wages  than  if  the  vessel  was  going  to  the  Black 
Sea.  He  does  this  to  keep  the  men  now,  when  by  treaty  he  can  have 
them  arrested,  detained,  and  delivered  back  to  him.  The  fugitive- 
slave  law  is  in  full  force  and  operation  between  nations  through 
treaties  entered  into.  If  the  men  coming  to  the  United  States  from 
other  countries  could  quit  their  vessels  in  ports  of  the  United  States 
and  reship  in  some  other  vessel  the  wages  would  become  equalized. 
It  is  not  suggested  that  seamen  should  be  paid  off.  It  is  suggested 
that  they  should  be  able  to  obtain  one-half  of  their  earned  wages,  and 
that  they  should  not  be  arrested  and  delivered  back  to  their  masters 
(owners?)  against  their  will.  The  only  difference  in  the  cost  of 
operation  of  vessels  that  does  not  arise  out  of  the  cost  of  building  is 
in  the  wage.  All  other  supplies  are  obtained  upon  the  same  terms 
by  vessels  in  the  same  trade.  The  price  of  the  port  controls.  The 
wages  of  the  port  would  control  if  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  was 
permitted  to  act,  but  this  law  is  set  at  naught  by  laws  made  by  the 
several  nations  and  given  vitality  in  foreign  countries  through 
treaties.  Such  arrangements  are  solely  in  the  interest  of  low-wage 
countries.  Abolish  the  fugitive-slave  law  now  operating  upon  the  sea- 
men; cease  being  the  slave  catcher  for  foreign  nations  and  the  eco- 
nomic value  to  purely  American-owned  vessels  would  be  equal  to 

14 


a  greater  sum  than  was  ever  asked  for  as  a  subsidy,  and  all  talk  of 
subsidy  or  necessity  for  discriminating  duties  would  at  once  be  at 
an  end. 

"Give  to  the  seamen  while  the  vessel  is  in  port  and  in  safety, 
the  freedom  that  has  been  given  to  other  workers ;  give  them  half  of 
the  money  due  to  them  (others  get  all)  in  such  ports,  in  order  that 
they  may  have  the  means  to  exercise  and  to  protect  their  freedom ;  pro- 
vide a  standard  of  skill  in  the  men  employed  (and  thus  make  it  pos- 
sible for  them  to  save  life  at  sea,  their  own  included),  provide  such 
regulations  as  to  working  hours  as  shall  keep  the  skill  available  (they 
work  7  days  a  week  and  12  hours  per  day  at  present),  make  the  free- 
dom, the  standard  of  efficiency,  and  the  right  to  one-half  of  the  money 
due,  applicable  to  foreign  vessels  coming  within  the  jurisdiction  of 
our  laws,  and  there  will  be  a  reasonable  assurance  of  safety  at  sea, 
the  American  vessel  will  be  on  equality  with  foreign  vessels  in 
American  ports,  as  they  already  are,  through  law  enacted  in  1884,  in 
foreign  ports  and  the  'drift  from  the  sea1  will  cease.  There  will  be  a 
better  class  of  men  available  for  the  merchant  marine  and  the  Navy, 
there  will  be  more  safety  at  sea,  lower  insurance  rates  and  no  neces- 
sity for  either  a  subsidy  or  for  any  discriminating  duty.  England 
regulates  all  the  matters  dealing  with  safety,  including  the  number 
of  men  on  vessels  coming  within  the  jurisdiction  of  her  laws  and  we 
will  be  doing  nothing  except  what  is  truly  American  by  doing  the 
same. 

"Compulsory  labor  in  private  employment  has  few  friends  today, 
and  the  hope  of  the  thinking  seamen  has  been  that  freedom  will  come 
to  them  also.  In  this  hope,  they  have  waited  and  worked.  They  be- 
lieved that  the  nations  would  come  to  realize  their  need  of  seamen 
for  national  purposes  and  that  disasters,  which  were  sure  to  multiply 
as  skill  decreased,  would  cause  the  people  to  demand  such  changes 
in  the  law  as  should  be  found  needed  in  the  interest  of  safety  of  life 
at  sea.  Vessels  that  can  not  burn  and  will  not  sink  are  not  built.  The 
best  vessel  ever  built  is  unseaworthy  unless  manned  by  skilled  officers 
and  men  who  can  understand  the  orders  and  who  know  how  to  obey 
them.  Real  seamen  know  that  in  any  serious  struggle  with  the  forces 
of  nature  the  human  element  is  the  determining  factor.  They  have 
been  waiting,  watching  and  praying  for  relief.  Senate  bill  4  is  the 
remedy  and  will  give  the  relief  needed. 

"An  international  conference  of  safety  of  life  at  sea  is  coming; 
but  we  fear  that  little  of  real  value  will  come  from  that  unless  it  is 
preceded  by  proper  legislation  here  setting  a  minimum.  We  fear 
that  the  forces  which  have  been,  and  now  are,  engaged  in  destroying 
the  customs  upon  which  skill  and  safety  rested,  and  which  have  suc- 
ceeded in  preventing  legislation  so  long  needed,  will  in  some  way 
dominate  the  conference. 

"With  the  proper  legislation  enacted  here  and  thus  a  minimum 
set,  that  conference  would  be  valuable.  Other  nations  would  have 
to  follow  our  lead  owing  to  pressure  of  economic  conditions;  they 
would,  therefore,  make  a  virtue  of  necessity  and  the  conference  would 
very  likely  recommend  similar  legislation  to  other  countries. 

"Sea  power  is  in  the  seaman.  Shipsi  are  but  the  seaman's  work- 
ing tools.  If  there  be  a  desire  in  the  white  race  to  retain  its  sea 

IB 


power,  the  Caucasian  must  be  brought  to  sea  again.  Nations  which 
desire  to  share  in  that  sea  power  must  depend  upon  their  own  citizens 
or  subjects.  If  a  reasonable  safety  at  sea  be  desired,  men  of  strength, 
courage  and  skill  must  be  induced  to  again  seek  the  sea  and  they  will 
not  come  to  accept  existing  status  nor  tolerate  other  existing  con- 
ditions." 


Freedom  Under  American  Flag. 

On  March  4,  1915,  a  day  to  be  remembered  and  celebrated  among 
seamen,  the  Seamen's  Act  was  passed  by  receiving  the  signature  of 
President  Woodrow  Wilson.  Officially  it  is  known  as  The  Sea- 
men's Act."  Popularly  it  is  called  "The  La  Follette  Seamen's  Act." 
We  have  at  times  called  it  "The  Wilson-La  Follette  Act,"  from  Wil- 
liam B.  Wilson,  who  introduced  it  and  fought  for  it  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  and  Senator  Robert  M.  La  Follette,  who  introduced 
it  and  fought  for  it  in  the  Senate.  There  were  other  Senators  and 
members  of  Congress  whose  names  should  never  be  forgotten  by 
us  or  by  seamen  anywhere.  Their  pictures  and  names  are  in  this 
little  book.  The  law  does  not  restore  to  the  seaman  his  true  place 
among  men.  This  no  law  can  do.  It  gives  to  us  freedom  and  the 
opportunity  to  reconquer  our  true  place  among  men.  The  struggle 
for  full  and  recognized  equality  with  all  other  men  now  enters  the 
industrial,  the  social  and  international  field.  If  we  be  true  to  our 
ideals,  if  we  can  keep  the  faith,  if  we  can  learn  to  labor  and  to  wait, 
we  shall  draw  strength  from  the  struggle  and  we  and  all  seamen 
shall  win. 

REMEMBER! 

Remember  that  under  the  American  flag  you  are  a  free  man.  Re- 
member that  with  freedom  comes  responsibility.  Remember  always, 
that  at  sea  you  are  an  individual  part  of  the  crew  of  the  vessel.  Re- 
member, that  at  sea,  you  are  under  the  law  arising  from  the  common 
danger — "the  common  hazard."  This  commands  self-sacrifice  and  the 
duty  to  obey  all  lawful  orders,  to  do  it  promptly  and  efficiently. 
Upon  this  depends  the  safety  of  the  vessel,  the  safety  of  the  pas- 
sengers, the  cargo  and  the  crew — your  shipmates  and  your  own. 

In  a  safe  harbor  you  are  under  the  law  of  freedom.  Your  body 
belongs  to  yourself.  The  estimate  in  which  we  are  held  by  our 
fellow  men  depends  mostly  upon  the  use  we  make  of  that,  which  is 
admittedly  our  own. 

When  we  shall  have  learned  to  do  our  duty  at  sea,  and  to  nobly 
use  our  freedom  in  port,  we  shall  have  earned  and  shall  receive  the 
respect  of  our  fellow  men.  We  shall  be  earning  wages  sufficient  to 
take  care  of  a  mother,  a  sister,  a  younger  brother,  or  a  wife  and  chil- 
dren. We  shall,  in  fact,  be  enjoying  some  of  those  things  before  we 
have  reached  a  standard  of  skill  and  conduct  such  as  is  here  con- 
templated. An  earnest  struggle— to  obtain  the  proper  skill  and  to 
nobly  use  it — to  make  a  proper  use  of  our  freedom  in  harbor — will 
bring  an  earnest  of  what  we  will  get,  when  we  have  restored  sea- 
manship to  the  skill  and  respect  which  once  was  its  recognized  due. 


The  Tradition  of  the  Sea. 

Know  your  duty  and  be  ready  at  all  times  to  perform  it. 
Improve  the  standard  of  skill. 

Remember  always  that  the  control  over  the  sea  is  in  you  as 
seamen;  remember  that  the  vessel  is  the  tool  with  which  you  work. 
A  skilled  workman  can  do  better  work  with  a  poor  tool  than  a  bad 
one  with  the  best.  As  a  good  workman  loves,  protects  and  improves 
his  tools,  so  will  a  good  seaman  love,  protect  and  improve  his  vessel. 
He  will  keep  her  neat  and  clean  and  in  a  fit  condition.  The  vessel  is 
to  the  real  seaman,  what  the  horse  is  to  the  rider,  the  gun  to  the 
hunter,  the  instrument  to  the  musician;  but  she  is  not  the  message 
— that  is  in  the  rider ;  she  is  not  the  quarry  to  be  brought  home ;  she 
is  not  the  music — that  is  in  the  man. 

You  use  the  vessel  to  carry  passengers  and  freight  or  you  use 
her  to  carry  your  guns  to  the  right  position  for  use.  The  passengers, 
the  freight  and  the  guns  are  intrusted  to  you.  Your  duty  is  to  the 
passengers,  the  freight,  the  guns.  To  bring  the  persons  or  things  to 
their  destination  you  must  take  the  best  possible  care  of  the  vessel 
and  keep  her  safe  and  in  good  condition.  But  when  the  vessel  must 
be  abandoned,  your  first  duty  is  to  the  passengers,  and  first  among 
them,  to  those  who  are  most  helpless — the  women  and  children.  Re- 
member always,  that  your  first  duty  is  to  save  life — the  life  of  your 
country,  the  life  of  the  passengers  and  of  your  shipmates.  Such  was, 
such  is  your  duty,  your  privilege  under  the  law  of  "the  common  haz- 
ard" and  for  this  you  will  give  your  own  life.  Such  is  the  true  tradi- 
tion and  spirit  of  the  sea. 

To  be  able  to  do  this  at  sea  you  must  have  a  period  of  training. 
You  cannot  learn  your  work  as  a  seaman  except  at  sea.  The  skill 
needed  comes  only  from  experience.  The  best  way  to  gain  this  is 
to  move  from  one  vessel  to  another,  from  one  trade  into  another, 
from  one  climate  into  another.  Go  by  preference  in  sailing  ships, 
next  in  vessels  having  sail  and  mechanical  motive  power,  next  in 
tramp  steamers.  Keep  away  from  passenger  vessels  until  you  know 
your  work.  On  passenger  vessels  there  is  nothing  to  learn  that  can- 
not be  learned  quicker  and  better  on  any  other  vessel. 

If  you  have  an  A.  B.  certificate  and  are  sailing  as  able  seaman, 
but  do  not  know  your  work  as  you  ought  to  know  it,  look  to  your 
shipmates  for  information — learn,  practice,  gather  the  knowledge  nec- 
essary to  the  proper  standard  of  skill.  And  don't  be  backward  about 
it  or  ashamed  to  learn.  Ignorance  is  a  misfortune,  but  it  is  dishonor- 
able only  when  persisted  in  when  there  is  opportunity  to  learn — 
therefor  learn.  It  is  best  for  you — for  all  seamen — for  the  ship — 
for  the  entire  calling — that  you  and  every  man  who  gets  the  A.  B. 
certificate  reaches  a  high  standard  of  seamanship  as  quickly  as  pos- 
sible. Seamanship—skill — the  ability  to  meet  the  emergencies  with 
which  our  calling  is  crowded — must  be  improved.  The  law  has  set 
a  minimum  standard  for  the  rating  of  able  seaman.  When  a  man 
qualifies  as  an  Able  Seaman  under  the  law,  see  that  he  is  a  real  sailor. 
Make  the  A.  B.  certificate  stand  for  something  more  than  it  does  now. 
Raise  the  standard  of  skill.  You  have  now  the  power  to  do  it. 

17 


When  we  organized,  we  promised  to  ourselves,  among  other 
things,  that  we  would  do  our  best  to  so  amend  the  maritime  law  of 
the  United  States  that  we  might  be  free  to  assist  in  developing  a 
body  of  real  American  seamen.  The  declaration  adopted  is  as  follows : 

"Based  upon  these  principles,  it  is  among  our  objects  to  use 
pur  influence  individually  and  collectively  for  the  purpose  of  effect- 
ing a  change  in  the  Maritime  Law  of  the  United  States,  so  as  to 
render  it  more  equitable  and  to  make  it  an  aid  instead  of  a  hin- 
drance to  the  development  of  a  Merchant  Marine  and  a  body  of 
American  seamen." 

We  tried  to  be  true  to  this  declaration.  While  we  struggled  for 
other  improvements  our  main  object  was  to  change  the  law.  When 
it  seemed  as  if  we  would  fail  we  adopted  as  a  motto:  "Tomorrow 
is  also  a  day/'  and  kept  at  work.  We  succeeded ;  the  law  is  amended ; 
we  have  the  freedom  and  the  opportunity,  therefore  the  power.  If 
we  fail  now  it  will  be  our  fault  and  our  disgrace. 

What  we  cannot  do  alone  we  can  do  combined  together.  To- 
gether we  can  learn  from  each  other  not  only  the  skill  needed;  but 
we  can  learn  to  help  each  other;  we  can  learn  to  bear  each  other's 
burdens;  we  can  learn  the  traditions  of  the  sea.  If  needed  and  de- 
sired, we  can  form  classes  and  furnish  teachers  to  study  systematic- 
ally not  only  the  practical  work  but  the  principles  underlying — the 
reasons  why  it  is  so  and  not  otherwise. 

THE  SHIP  AND  CREW. 
Seamanship. 

The  ratings  of  sailors,  men  in  the  deck  department,  are :  Boy,  Ordi- 
nary Seaman,  Able  Seaman  (Quartermaster  or  Boatswain,  etc.,  are  able 
seamen  assigned  to  special  work).  The  able  seaman  is  the  unit  of 
skill  and  efficiency  in  the  deck  department.  The  boy  and  ordinary  sea- 
man is  learning  to  be  an  able  seaman  and  from  among  the  able  seamen, 
who  have  studied  navigation,  comes  the  officers  and  future  masters  of 
vessels. 

The  skill  and  experience  in  the  engine  department  is  of  a  different 
kind.  There,  as  in  any  other  capacity,  the  men  must  be  innured  to  the 
sea.  While  it  does  not  take  the  same  length  of  time  to  make  a  marine 
fireman  as  it  does  an  able  seaman  the  experience  of  all  seamen  has 
taught  them  that  the  difference  between  the  skilled  and  the  unskilled 
fireman  is  very  great  and  that  while  it  always  determines  the  speed  it 
sometimes  is  the  main^  factor  in  safety.  Official  reports  of  the  British 
Admiralty  verifies  this  fact.  The  landsman  becomes  first  a  coal  passer 
or  wiper.  Here  the  fireman  is  the  unit.  Oilers,  Watertenders,  etc., 
are  firemen  detailed  to  special  work. 

The  young  man,  but  more  especially  the  boy  who  has  just  entered 
sea  life  or  who  is  thinking  seriously  of  beginning  sea  life,  should  read 
carefully  the  following  description  of  life  on  vessels  and  what  the  able 
seaman  is  expected  to  know.  And  please  keep  well  in  mind  that  if  you 
do  not  know  the  able  seaman's  work,  the  master  may  under  the  law  and 
under  ancient  usage  reduce  you  to  a  rating  and  pay  according  to  your 
demerit ! 


Departments  of  the  Ship. 

Every  steamer's  crew  is  divided  into  three  separate  sections,  known 
as  the  deck  department,  the  engine  department,  and  the  steward's  depart- 
ment. 

To  obtain  any  conception  of  the  character  of  the  work  performed 
by  able  seamen  on  steamships  and  the  skill  required  of  them  on  such 
vessels  it  is  necessary  to  know  in  a  general  way  the  work  of  the  men 
in  each  department  and  to  understand  the  relationship  between  the 
different  departments  and  between  each  of  the  departments  and  the  ship 
itself. 

The  deck  department  (sometimes  called  the  captain's  department) 
has  to  do  with  the  general  navigation  of  the  ship.  Its  officers  are  in 
general  command,  the  highest  deck  officer,  i.  e.,  the  master,  being  in 
supreme  command  of  the  entire  ship,  every  department  being  subject 
to  his  orders;  the  first  mate  taking  command  in  the  absence  of  the 
master  and  the  second  mate  in  the  absence  of  his  two  superiors.  The 
crew  of  the  deck  department,  in  which  the  able  seaman  is  the  unit, 
consists  of  the  officers,  quartermasters — where  special  men  for  steering 
are  designated — boatswains,  carpenters,  a  varying  number  of  sailors, 
officially  designated  either  as  "able  seamen"  or  "sailors,"  and  boys  or  men 
who  are  or  who  are  supposed  to  be  learning  seamanship.  A  deck  crew 
inefficient  in  skill  or  insufficient  in  number  endangers  the  vessel,  her 
passengers,  and  cargo. 

The  engine  department  (usually  called  the  engineer's  department) 
operates  the  boilers  and  engines,  keeps  them  clean  and  in  working  order, 
making  such  repairs  as  can  be  done  on  the  vessel.  A  chief  engineer 
is  in  charge,  with  assistant  engineers  and  a  crew  of  oilers,  water  tenders, 
wipers,  electricians,  firemen,  and  coal  passers.  Inefficiency  means  large 
bills  for  shopwork,  waste  of  fuel  and  decrease  in  speed. 

The  steward's  department  has  to  do  with  the  preparing  and  serving 
of  food,  care  of  staterooms  and  interior  of  cabins,  and  general  personal 
service  to  passengers.  It  is  in  charge  of  a  purser  and  chief  steward, 
with  a  crew  of  cooks,  waiters,  pantry  and  linen  men,  bell  boys,  stew- 
ardesses, and  chambermaids.  Inefficiency  in  this  department  means 
loss  of  passengers,  arising  from  bad  reputation. 

The  Ocean  Trade. 

The  world's  ocean  carrying  trade  is  done  (a)  in  sailing  vessels 
from  100  to  5,000  tons,  but  the  general  type  of  sailing  vessel  is  from 
500  to  3,000  tons.  The  rig  of  these  vessels  range  from  the  fore  and 
aft  schooner  without  topmasts  to  the  four  and  five  masted  full-rigged 
ship  with  or  without  studding  sails;  the  number  of  sailors  on  these  ves- 
sels is  approximately  125,000.  (b)  In  steamers  ranging  in  tonnage 
from  100  to  40,000  tons,  but  the  general  type  varies  from  700  to  7,000 
tons,  with  a  rigging  consisting  of  two  pole  masts  with  two  or  more  booms, 
on  each  to  four  or  five  masts  with  up  to  eight  cargo  booms  on  each 
mast,  besides  some  sail  with  or  without  gaffs,  with  or  without  wireless 
equipment;  they  employ  about  90,000  sailors.  Some  of  these  vessels, 
steam  and  sail,  trade  to  ports  where  there  are  towboats,  wharfs,  and 
freight  handlers,  but  the  greater  number  go  to  ports  where  none  or  few  of 

19 


these  facilities  exist,  and  there  the  sailors,  led  by  the  deck  officers,  and 
the  firemen,  led  by  the  engineers,  do  the  repairing  in  their  several  depart- 
ments, and  where  the  sailors  do  all  the  discharging  and  loading  of  cargo, 
using  lighters,  ordinary  boats,  or  surf  boats. 

The  deck  crew  of  a  steamer  may  be  from  9  to  72  or  even  more, 
both  inclusive  of  officers,  while  the  whole  crew  runs  from  18  or  less  in 
the  small  freighter  trading  to  shallow  harbors  to  972  in  the  "Olympic," 
and  still  more  in  the  "Imperator." 

Able  Seaman. 

The  term  "able  seaman,"  as  used  on  board  any  ship,  steam  as  well 
as  sail,  means  a  man  who  has  had  sufficient  experience  in  deck  service 
to  acquire  the  skill  in  seamanship  needed  to  perform  the  duties,  routine 
and  emergency,  required  in  that  service.  Boatswains,  quartermasters, 
etc.,  are  simply  able  seamen  assigned  to  certain  positions. 

The  amount  of  gear  and  equipment  used  in  the  deck  department 
on  different  classes  of  steamships  varies  greatly  of  course,  but  it  is  a 
difference  in  degree,  not  in  kind.  The  less  gear  and  equipment  the  vessel 
may  have,  whatever  her  trade,  the  greater  the  skill  needed  in  emer- 
gencies which  no  vessel  can  avoid.  The  deck  crew  of  a  steamer  well 
supplied  with  rope  and  wire,  lines  and  cables,  booms,  blocks  and  tackles, 
canvas,  lumber,  tools,  and  boats  does  not  find  it  nearly  so  difficult  to  suc- 
cessfully meet  emergencies  as  is  the  case  on  board  a  poorly  equipped 
vessel.  At  the  same  time  men  can  not  learn  a  seaman's  duties  as  quickly 
on  a  poorly  equipped  vessel  as  he  can  on  one  that  is  well  supplied  with 
gear  of  various  kinds. 

In  reading  the  following  partial  description  of  a  seaman's  work 
it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  a  sailor  works  on  all  kinds  of  ships  and 
does  not  confine  himself,  can  not  confine  himself,  to  one  kind  of  vessel 
in  any  one  given  trade.  When  out  of  employment  he  can  not  remain 
idle,  waiting  until  he  can  ship  on  a  particular  kind  of  a  steamer,  rigged 
and  equipped  in  a  certain  way;  but  he  ships — hires  out — on  any  kind 
of  vessel  he  can  get,  and  so,  of  necessity  becomes  familiar  with  all 
classes  of  vessels,  and  must  know  his  work  in  any  or  all  of  them. 

The  General  Routine  Duties  of  Able  Seamen. 

The  routine  duties  of  the  deck  crew  are  so  varied  and  the  skill  and 
knowledge  required  of  able  seamen  is  of  such  a  character  as  to  be 
exceedingly  difficult  to  describe.  The  following,  however,  will  give 
some  idea  of  the  routine  work  on  steamships,  what  the  seaman  (sailor) 
learns  while  engaged  in  it,  and  how  it  therefore  fits  him  for  the  numer- 
ous emergencies  he  must  meet. 

While  on  board  ship  in  port  the  sailors  are  occupied  mainly  with 
preparing  the  vessel  for  sea.  Much  of  the  general  work  described  herein 
is  partially  done  while  in  port  if  there  is  sufficient  time.  The  steering 
gear  must  be  carefully  overhauled,  the  wheel  chains  below  decks  taken 
down  and,  together  with  the  wire  rope,  examined  for  needed  repairs 
or  substitution  and  set  up  again. 

If  they  do  not  take  part  in  the  handling  of  cargo  they  must,  at 
least,  take  care  of  the  gear  used  in  that  work,  in  moving  the  steamer 

20 


from  one  part  of  the  dock  to  another,  running  lines,  changing  berths 
at  the  same  pier,  breasting  her  into  a  dock  or  springing  her  out,  using 
heavy  mooring  hawsers  and  cables,  holding  on  or  surging  with  turns 
of  the  hawser  around  timber  heads  or  bitts,  or  by  compressor  on  a 
deck  winch,  putting  the  heaviest  possible  strain  on  the  line  without  losing 
control  by  parting  it. 

A  good  deal  of  the  painting  of  hulls  is  done  in  port.  This  is  done 
from  light  staging — a  narrow  plank  with  or  without  crosspieces — con- 
structed by  the  sailors  and  slung  over  the  side  by  means  of  light  but 
strong  ropes,  with  use  of  hitches  which  will  not  jam  but  which  are  safe. 
Sliding  down  the  rope  to  the  narrow  plank,  which  may  be  swinging 
more  or  less,  especially  when  working  over  the  bow  or  under  the  over- 
hang of  the  stern,  they  work  anywhere  from  close  to  the  water  to  50 
or  60  feet  above  it,  climbing  back  on  the  deck,  shifting  the  stage  after 
every  fleet,  making  fast  to  the  rail  here,  a  cleat  there,  a  stanchion  or 
any  other  safe  and  convenient  holding  place.  An  imperfect  hitch  or 
knot  here  means  man  overboard. 

While  some  of  the  crew  is  doing  this,  others  are  preparing  gear 
and  equipment,  looking  after  the  mooring  lines,  slacking  off  when  too 
tight,  or  heaving  in  when  too  slack,  or  if  deck  crew  be  small  one  job  is 
interrupted  while  more  urgent  ones  are  done. 

The  cargo  out,  loading  is  begun.  Gear  may  have  to  be  shifted,  the 
hold  cleaned  out,  or  the  vessel  may  proceed  to  sea  light  or  in  ballast, 
taken  on  board  by  longshoremen  or  sailors,  hoisted  or  otherwise,  unless 
water  ballast  is  used. 

In  many  trades  and  ports,  coastwise  as  well  as  foreign,  the  deck 
crews  load  and  discharge  cargoes.  This  consists  in  slinging  it  on  the 
dock,  hoisting  it  from  the  dock,  and  lowering  it  into  the  hold,  or  in 
trucking  it  over  a  gangplank  through  a  side  port  into  the  hold,  where 
it  is  stowed  away  so  that  it  will  not  be  damaged  and  the  vessel  will 
be  in  proper  trim ;  even  where  stevedores  are  employed  the  mate  is 
responsible  for  the  proper  stowing  of  the  cargo,  and  he  usually  details 
some  able  seaman  to  assist  him  in  seeing  that  the  work  is  properly  done. 
Or  the  vessel  may  be  in  open  ports,  of  which  there  are  many,  and 
passengers  and  cargo  may  be  landed  in  lighters,  boats,  or  by  use  of 
special  boats  called  surfboats,  carried  especially  for  that  purpose.  The 
cargo  may  be  anything  from  small  package  stuff,  handled  in  net  slings, 
to  a  piano  or  an  automobile,  costly  glass  or  china  ware.  In  weight  it 
may  be  from  a  few  pounds  to  50  or  more  tons.  It  may  be  lumber  to 
be  hoisted  on  board  in  sling  loads  or  shoved  in  by  hand  and  stowed  in 
the  hold,  or  it  may  be  bales  of  wool  or  cotton  to  .be  stowed,  or  grain, 
coal,  or  ore  to  be  trimmed.  In  any  case,  the  stowing  must  be  properly 
done,  or  cargo  will  be  damaged  and  vessels  are  likely  to  be  lost. 

Ready  for  sea,  an  able  seaman  goes  to  the  wheel.  Lines  are  cast 
off  or  anchor  weighed,  cargo  ports,  if  any,  closed  either  partially,  as  on 
a  short  trip  in  good  weather,  or  made  secure  and  water-tight  for  a 
longer  voyage  or  in  bad  weather.  On  passenger  vessels  the  "emergency 
boats"  are  cleared  away  and  swung  out  ready  for  instant  use.  Some 
passenger  vessels  send  one  man  to  the  lookout  in  the  bow,  or  the  "crow's 
nest"  on  the  foremast,  immediately  upon  leaving  port;  others  not 
until  sundown  or  foggy.  Freight  steamers  never,  unless  foggy  or 
during  night.  On  passenger  ships  the  officer  of  the  watch  (one  of 
the  mates)  goes  to  the  bridge  and  takes  charge  as  soon  as  the 

21 


master  is  ready  to  be  relieved,  which  is  usually  as  soon  as  the 
vessel  is  out  of  port.  Another  mate  or,  if  none,  then  some  able  sea- 
man, selected  for  the  purpose,  supervises  and  assists  in  the  work  of 
clearing  up  the  ship,  lowering  or  topping  and  securing  cargo  booms, 
etc.  Any  stays  or  other  rigging  needing  to  be  set  up  are  attended  to, 
hatches  are  battened  down,  i.  e.,  made  water-tight,  or  put  in  condition 
to  be  made  water-tight  quickly;  heavy  "strong  backs"  (handled  by  hand 
or  purchase)  have  been  placed  under  the  hatch  covers,  wood  or  steel 
covers  put  on,  and  the  tarpaulins  (heavy  canvas,  soaked  with  tar) 
fastened  on.  There  may  be  anywhere  from  3  to  36  hatches  to  be  battened 
down. 

On  passenger  vessels  lower  deck  hatches  may  also  be  battened  down, 
if  there  be  men  enough  on  board  to  attend  to  it.  Usually  there  are  not; 
it  always  ought  to  be  done  because  of  possible  collision. 

Lines  are  coiled  away,  blocks,  tackles,  and  guys  used  in  connection 
with  the  cargo  booms  are  taken  down,  coiled  up,  and  stored  away; 
everything  put  into  such 'shape  as  to  permit  all  rope  gear  to  dry  thor- 
oughly in  preparations  for  overhauling  and  repair.  Anchors  are  secured, 
fish  tackle,  if  used,  is  unshipped  and  stored  away,  or  canvas  cover  laced 
on  to  protect  it  from  the  weather.  All  hawse  pipes,  chocks,  or  other 
openings,  leading  into  inclosed  parts  of  the  vessel  are  plugged  or  covered 
to  keep  seas  from  washing  in. 

Watches  are  then  set  if  the  crew  is  divided  into  equal  watches; 
few  passenger  vessels  in  the  coastwise  or  lake  trade  do  this,  but  it  is 
generally  done  in  the  over-sea  trade. 

In  the  general  ocean  trade,  exclusive  of  large  passenger  vessels, 
each  member  of  the  deck  crew,  officers  excepted,  take  a  two-hour  "trick" 
at  the  wheel  and  lookout,  working  around  deck  during  the  rest  of  their 
watch. 

Clean  ship.  Wash  decks,  the  outside  of  all  deck  houses,  etc.,  using 
hose  and  brooms,  afterwards  seeing  that  all  gear  is  in  order  and  espe- 
cially that  rope  gear  is  hung  up;  awnings  and  canvas  weather  cloths, 
when  necessary,  put  up  or  taken  down;  fastenings  and  lacings  are  rope 
exclusively;  care  of  these  ropes,  awnings,  and  weather  cloths  and  their 
repair  involves  the  same  kind  of  work  as  is  done  on  sails. 

One  sailor  sounds  the  pumps  hourly  or  every  watch,  watching  for 
leaks,  sounds  all  ballast  tanks  to  note  the  amount  of  water  ship  is  making, 
so  that  she  may  be  pumped  out  when  necessary  (there  is  no  such  thing  as 
a  perfectly  water-tight  ship).  The  steering  engine  must  be  examined 
and  oiled  each  watch,  and  when  not  actually  in  the  engine  room  this  is 
done  by  one  of  the  deck  crew;  in  fog  or  rain  all  exposed  gear,  signal 
halyards,  tackles,  etc.,  must  be  slacked  off  when  shrinking  too  tight  and 
likely  to  be  damaged  under  the  strain,  and  as  they  slack  up  when  air 
becomes  dry  must  be  tightened  again.  Other  work  being  done,  the 
deck  crew  begins  the  overhauling  of  all  cargo  gear,  working  lines, 
cables,  and  hawsers  for  repairs.  Stranded,  chafed,  or  badly  weakened 
parts  are  repaired  by  putting  in  a  new  strand,  or  the  weakened  part  cut 
out  entirely  and  the  end  put  together  again  by  a  splice  suitable  for  the 
line  according  to  its  use.  New  rope  is  uncoiled  (a  seemingly  unim- 
portant proceeding,  but  if  improperly  done  the  rope  will  be  damaged 
and  some  parts  of  it  rendered  nearly  useless),  measured  off  in  lengths 
needed,  new  tackles  rove  off,  new  lines  prepared,  spliced  into  blocks, 
new  pennants,  whips,  and  slings  made.  Awnings,  tarpaulins,  boat  covers, 

22 


weather  cloths,  canvas  caps  and  covers  for  ventilators  repaired  or  new 
ones  made.  On  longer  voyages  and  in  properly  manned  vessels  all  these 
things  are  done  on  board  by  the  deck  crew.  Extra  lashings  are  pre- 
pared for  various  uses,  rope  swabs  made,  standing  rigging  oiled  or  tarred 
from  time  to  time,  and  numerous  things  of  the  same  nature  attended  to. 
In  a  greater  or  less  degree  this  work  goes  on  in  all  classes  of  ships. 

The  man  who  expects  to  be  known  as  an  able  seaman  on  a  steam- 
ship must  know  the  use  of  rigging  screws,  fids,  marlin  spikes,  serving 
mallets,  the  palm  and  needle,  calking  tools,  and  most  of  the  carpenter 
tools,  the  mixing  of  paints  and  colors,  how  to  obtain  strong  leverages 
with  bars,  ropes,  tackles,  how  to  brace  with  wedges  and  shores,  besides 
knowing  the  various  knots  and  splices,  and  to  worm,  parcel,  serve,  and 
seize,  with  rope  and  wire,  and  must  be  able  to  hold  up  his  end  of  a  job 
when  it  comes  to  climbing  and  working  in  places  where  both  arm  hold 
and  foothold  is  difficult.  He  must  know  the  lead  line,  not  only  its  marks, 
but  how  to  use  it,  to  get  correct  sounding  when  the  ship  is  in  close  quar- 
ters, the  night  dark,  and  the  sea  heavy,  whether  he  stands  in  a  smother 
of  sea  on  a  low  freighter  or  far  up  the  side  of  an  immense  liner.  The 
compass,  of  course,  is  a  familiar  object  to  him,  but  he  must  know  how  to 
use  it,  how  to  steer  the  ship  under  all  conditions,  what  to  expect  and  how 
to  meet  it  when  he  is  steering  across  a  current  as  well  as  with  it  or 
against  it,  through  the  swift  rush  of  a  narrows,  passing  at  close  quarters 
in  and  out  of  the  suction  of  another  heavy  ship  under  speed,  with  the 
wind  light  or  strong  from  any  direction,  heading  into  a  heavy  sea,  taking 
it  on  either  bow  or  quarter  or  abeam,  under  check  or  full  speed,  rolling 
and  pitching  heavily,  or  running  before  it,  when  a  blunder  may  mean 
total  loss  of  ship  with  lives  and  cargo.  The  man  at  the  wheel  must  know 
his  work,  what  to  expect  and  how  to  meet  it  instantly,  in  calm  or  storm, 
daylight  or  dark,  in  clear  weather  or  in  fog.  The  man  who  learns  to  be 
a  reasonably  good  helmsman  in  even  three  years  is  an  exception,  because, 
regardless  of  the  aptitude  of  the  individual,  the  personal  knowledge  of 
varying  conditions,  different  ships,  how  they  act  under  differing  cir- 
cumstances and  familiarity  with  the  various  steering  gears,  can  only 
be  gained  through  experience  necessarily  covering  a  good  deal  of  time. 
The  steam  steering  gear,  rendering  less  physical  strength  necessary  and 
making  possible  the  handling  of  larger  ships,  requires  greater  skill  than 
the  old  hand  method  which  permitted  the  man  at  the  wheel  to  feel  the 
increasing  or  decreasing  rudder  pressure  and  thus  warned  him  of  just 
how  the  ship  was  acting. 

If  you  would  be  recognized  as  an  able  seaman  on  a  sailing  vessel 
you  must  know  and  be  able  to  perform  the  work  above  indicated  and 
in  addition  you  must  know  and  know  the  use  of  every  part  of  the  stand- 
ing and  running  rigging  of  such  vessel.  You  must  know  how  to  repair 
it,  how  to  make  new  parts  of  the  standing  rigging  and  how  to  place  it 
on  the  masthead;  you  must  know  the  running  rigging  well  enough  to 
find  any  rope  in  the  darkest  night  and  how  to  use  it ;  you  must  know 
how  to  send  down  and  send  up  spars,  how  to  rig  jurymasts,  jury- 
rigging  and  jury  rudder  in  case  of  necessity.  You  must  know  how  to 
handle  sail  in  all  kinds  of  weather — how  to  take  them  in,  how  to  reef 
them,  how  to  furl  them,  how  to  cast  them  loose,  how  to  stick  out  reefs 
and  how  to  set  them.  To  know  this  is  not  enough ;  you  must  be  able  to 
do  it  in  all  kinds  of  weather,  when  it  can  be  done,  in  the  darkest  night 
as  well  as  in  the  light  of  day.  You  must  be  well  enough  inured  to  the 

23 


sea  to  have  your  body  at  all  times  accommodate  itself  to  the  movements 
of  the  vessel  and  to  do  so  unconsciously.  Your  mind  and  body  must 
have  been  so  developed  by  experience  and  contact  with  the  sea  that  you 
have  the  coolness  and  resourcefulness  needed  to  meet  and  overcome 
difficulties  and  emergencies.  But  these  last  are  the  necessary  qualities  of 
all  seamen.  They  are  needed  on  a  steamer  as  well  as  on  a  sailing  vessel. 
To  quote  from  Bullen's  Men  of  the  Merchant  Service,  page  256 : 

"An  able  seaman,  properly  so  called,  is  a  skilled  mechanic  with 
great  ability.  On  sailing  vessels  his  place  in  calm  or  storm  never 
can  be  adequately  filled  by  the  unskilled,  however  numerous,  nor 
in  steamships  in  emergencies." 

However,  even  that  which  is  considered  the  merest  routine  work 
requires  considerable  training  and  presupposes  physical  ability  not 
common. 

Painting,  scrubbing,  etc. — Prepared  paint  is  seldom  brought  on  board 
ship.  The  raw  material  is  put  on  board  and  is  mixed  according  to  needs 
by  the  able  seaman.  Graining,  filling,  varnishing,  and  lettering  is  done 
as  well  as  ordinary  flat  painting.  Sailors  become  sufficiently  skilled  at 
this  work  to  qualify  as  journeymen  painters  on  shore.  The  deck  crew 
cleans  all  outside  parts  of  the  ship,  except  the  funnel,  from  the  mast 
and  booms  to  the  deck  houses,  decks,  and  sides  of  the  ship.  Some  of 
this  work  must  be  described  to  show  that  there  is  more  practice  in  it 
than  simply  scrubbing  and  painting. 

Scrubbing  and  painting  lifeboats.  (Usually  painted  white.)  Covers 
removed  and  all  gear  taken  from  the  boats — inside  cleaned — boat  lashings 
let  go,  boats  hoisted  clear  of  the  chocks — outside  cleaned — 'boats  lowered 
in  place,  gear  the  lashings  replaced.  When  painting,  the  same  process  is 
repeated. 

Scrubbing  and  painting  of  masts.  Gantlines  must  be  rove  either 
through  sheaves  just  below  the  eyes  of  the  backstays  (near  extreme  top) 
or  through  block  carried  aloft  for  that  purpose.  The  sailor  goes  up 
the  ratlines  to  the  eyes  of  the  lower  rigging,  from  there  he  "shins"  up 
the  topmast  to  the  eyes  of  the  upper  rigging,  where  he  hangs  on  as  best 
he  can  while  some  one  on  deck  bends  the  gantline  onto  the  signal  halyards 
and  hoists  it  to  the  man  aloft,  who  reeves  the  gantline  through  the 
sheave,  unbends  the  halyards,  slides  down  the  mast  to  the  eyes  of  the 
lower  rigging,  bringing  the  ends  of  the  gantline  and  the  signal  halyards 
with  him,  thence  to  the  deck.  If  no  signal  halyards,  such  halyards  are 
usually  rove  off  first  to  be  used  in  hoisting  up  the  gantline.  If  no 
ratlines  on  the  lower  rigging,  he  must  "shin"  all  the  way  up  the  shrouds 
of  the  lower  mast  and  then  up  the  topmast.  When  the  gantline  is  rove, 
it  is  bent  onto  a  "boatswain's  chair"  (a  short  piece  of  board  slung  in 
a  rope  strap)  and  the  sailor  is  hoisted  back  aloft.  Reaching  the  highest 
point  to  which  the  "chair"  can  carry  him,  he  is  anywhere  from  10  to 
15  feet  below  the  truck  or  extreme  top  of  the  mast.  He  gets  out  of  the 
"boatswain's  chair"  and  "shins"  the  bare  pole  to  the  very  top,  sometimes 
using  a  rope  strap.  Scrubbing  materials  are  sent  up  to  him  on  the  signal 
halyards,  and  hanging  onto  the  bare  pole  he  works  down  in  that  manner 
until  he  gets  low  enough  to  swing  himself  into  the  "chair"  again ;  after 
which  he  works  down,  lowering  himself  as  needed  by  slacking  away  on 
the  gantline,  which  he  makes  fast  to  the  "boatswain's  chair."  Reaching 
the  deck,  he  is  hoisted  aloft  again  and  then  goes  through  the  same 

24 


performance  in  painting,  which  may  include  gilding  or  painting  the 
ball  on  top  of  the  mast.  Anywhere  from  one  to  three  men  work  each 
mast.  Where  three  men  work,  one  takes  the  topmast,  the  other  two 
the  lower  mast. 

Ship's  work  of  the  nature  described  above  continues  unceasingly 
until  bad  weather  sets  in  and  heavy  sea  rises.  Everything  movable  on 
deck  must  then  be  securely  lashed,  extra  lashings  are  put  on  the  more 
exposed  lifeboats,  some  of  the  ventilator  tops  exposed  to  the  wash  of 
the  sea  are  unshipped,  canvas  coverings  lashed  over  openings,  parts  of 
hatchings  left  open  for  ventilation  are  closed  and  battened  down,  and  as 
needed  life  lines  are  stretched  along  exposed  sections  of  the  deck.  Dur- 
ing the  gale  the  watch  on  deck  and  sometimes  the  whole  deck  crew  is 
constantly  at  work.  Anything  may  break  adrift,  from  a  piano  in  the 
cabin  in  a  passenger  ship  to  a  heavy  cargo  boom  on  deck,  from  paint 
pots  in  the  forepeak  to  a  spare  anchor  on  the  forecastle,  from  some  cargo 
below  decks  or  on  deck  to  a  lifeboat  on  the  gallows ;  the  deck  crew  must 
secure  it  whatever  it  is  and  put  on  the  necessary  lashings.  A  dead- 
light is  smashed  in,  a  hatch  cover  loosened,  part  of  a  rail  broken,  a 
ventilator  cap  torn  off,  a  companion  ladder  getting  shaky,  a  cargo  port 
weakened  and  leaky;  the  able  seamen  must  do  whatever  necessary  to 
remedy  the  damage.  No  matter  what  kind  of  ship,  no  matter  the  trade, 
when  the  gale  is  on  the  deck  crew  finds  no  time  for  anything  except  to 
perform  work  immediately  necessary  for  the  safety  of  the  ship  and  its 
equipment,  aside  from  being  prepared  to  meet  the  many  grave  emer- 
gencies that  may  arise.  On  such  occasions  they  work  often  without  any 
rest  until  so  exhausted  that  they  are  absolutely  unable  to  do  any  more. 

The  weather  moderating,  unusual  lashings  put  on  boats  are  removed, 
life  lines  taken  down,  parts  of  hatches  reopened,  ventilators  reshipped, 
and  in  event  any  damage  done  it  is  repaired  as  far  as  is  possible  at  sea. 
In  all  this,  excepting  only  in  connection  with  the  engine  and  boiler  rooms, 
and  sometimes  even  there,  the  deck  crews,  working  under  supervision 
of  the  deck  officers,  are  called  upon. 

Routine  work  is  resumed  and  continued.  When  no  other  work  is 
immediately  necessary  some  interior  chipping  of  rust,  scraping,  and 
painting  may  be  done  inside  or  outside  the  hull,  the  towing  hawser  or 
anchor  chains  are  overhauled  and  restowed.  Damaged  rigging  or  dam- 
aged service  on  shrouds  may  have  to  be  repaired,  ratlines  may  have  to 
be  replaced,  if  of  rope  seized  with  marlin;  if  iron  rods,  with  wire 
seizing;  canvas  covering  used  on  some  parts  of  the  deck  and  on  top 
of  the  deck  houses  may  be  ripped  off  and  new  stuff  laid;  life  preservers 
overhauled  and  repaired ;  the  'ship's  colors,  signal  flags,  etc.,  kept  in 
good  condition.  The  work  is  never  completed,  because  there  are  not 
men  enough  in  the  deck  crew,  and  some  of  it  is  done  in  sail  lofts  and 
by  "harbor  seamen"  when  the  vessel  is  in  port. 

Nearing  port,  preparations  are  made  for  landing  of  passengers  and 
discharging  of  cargo.  Necessary  gear  is  made  ready,  anchors  ready, 
hatches  unbattened,  etc.  The  vessel  may  go  to  a  dock  in  convoy  of  tugs, 
as  in  the  case  of  a  big  liner,  or  may  work  her  way  in  alone  close  enough 
for  one  of  the  sailors  to  slide  down  a  rope  and  swing  himself  onto  the 
dock  to  take  a  line;  or  she  may  come  to  anchor  in  some  harbor,  a  road- 
stead, or  off  the  open  beach,  as  the  case  may  be.  Passengers  may  be 
landed  over  gangplanks,  cargo  discharged  by  longshore  gangs,  or,  if  in 
bulk,  scooped  out  by  powerful  machinery  in  ports  where  traffic  is  regular 

25 


and  heavy  and  the  docks  arranged  for  the  purpose;  or  the  cargo  may  be 
handled  by  the  deck  crew,  as  in  some  trades  like  that  of  the  Pacific, 
some  of  the  bay  and  sound  steamers  of  the  Atlantic,  or  the  combination 
passenger  and  merchandise  steamers  of  the  Great  Lakes;  or,  as  in 
many  parts  of  the  world,  passengers  and  cargo  may  have  to  be  landed 
in  boats  manned  by  the  deck  crew,  sometimes  through  heavy  surf. 

All  vessels,  steam  or  sail,  carry  lifeboats.  One  on  a  small  sailing 
hooker,  2  to  4  on  freight  steamers,  up  to  30  or  more  on  large  passenger 
ships.  The  handling  of  boats  in  all  cases,  except  at  drills  and  when  all 
boats  must  be  used  at  the  same  time,  is  done  almost  exclusively  by  the 
deck  crew. 

The  smaller  class  of  vessels  of  all  kinds  lower  a  boat  for  general 
working  purposes  at  every  anchorage  or  port  to  communicate  with  shore, 
to  run  lines,  etc.,  and  man  it  by  members  of  the  deck  crew.  In  all  trades 
passenger  steamers  carry  a  working  boat,  handled  by  the  deck  crew,  for 
general  service  in  connection  with  ship's  work. 

The  emergency  boats,  which  are  kept  ready  for  instant  lowering 
on  passenger  ships,  are  manned  exclusively  by  members  of  the  deck 
crew. 

In  rescue  work  at  sea  boats  are  manned  entirely  by  able  seamen  if  a 
sufficient  number  of  such  are  on  board.  If  able  seamen  are  insuffi- 
cient in  number,  the  less  experienced  men  in  the  deck  crew  fill  out  the 
boat  crews,  and  when  that  is  insufficient  men  from  the  other  depart- 
ments are  necessarily  used.  The  difference  between  the  exhibition  known 
as  boat  drill  and  actual  service  conditions  and  practice  will  be  described 
later. 

Some  Emergencies. 

Fire:  In  event  of  actual  fire  the  official  fire  alarm  used  on  pas- 
senger steamers  in  fire  drill  is  promptly  dispensed  with.  The  bridge  or 
pilot  house  and  engine  room  is  notified.  Fire  on  deck  or  in  the  cargo 
is  handled  by  the  deck  crew,  getting  help  when  needed  from  the  engine 
department.  When  the  fire  is  in  the  passenger  quarters  (the  steward's 
department)  the  deck  officer  who  responds  with  his  crew  of  sailors  takes 
immediate  charge,  his  crew  being  assisted  by  the  steward's  men  if  neces- 
sary; when  the  fire  is  in  the  engine  or  boiler  room  or  coal  bunkers  the 
deck  officer  with  his  crew  promptly  gets  to  the  spot,  but  here  the  deck 
officer  does  not  take  charge  as  quickly,  the  engineer's  staff  usually  being 
the  best  fire  fighters  for  that  part  of  the  ship. 

Stranding:  When  vessel  runs  ashore  and  the  immediate  assistance 
of  tugs  or  other  vessels  is  not  to  be  obtained,  the  ship  must  be  lightened 
and  worked  off  in  some  manner.  For  this  purpose  cargo  and  other 
heavy  material  may  be  transferred  from  one  part  of  the  ship  to  another  or 
may  be  thrown  overboard.  Among  other  things  to  be  done  may  be 
the  carrying  out  of  an  anchor  to  help  pull  the  ship  off.  If  the  kedge 
anchor  will  not  hold,  one  of  the  large  anchors,  regardless  of  size  or 
weight,  must  be  taken  out  and  dropped  some  distance  from  the  vessel 
with  a  heavy  hawser  attached.  This  is  done  by  the  deck  crew;  two  or 
four  lifeboats  may  be  lashed  together,  a  heavy  boom  or  spar  lashed 
across,  the  anchor  suspended  from  the  spar  under  the  boats,  the  hawser 
lightered  by  other  boats  if  necessary.  The  anchor  is  taken  to  the  desired 
distance,  the  hawser  thrown  off  the  boats  sustaining  it  and  the  anchor 

26 


dropped  by  cutting  the  lashings  holding  it  to  the  spar,  whereupon  the 
winches,  capstans,  or  windlass  may  be  used,  putting  the  greatest  possible 
strain  upon  the  cable  while  the  engines  are  backing  or  going  ahead  full 
speed.  If  another  vessel  appears  to  offer  help,  lines  must  be  run  between 
the  vessels,  and  again  the  deck  crew  does  the  work,  using  the  boats. 

Wheel  chains  parting,  or  tiller  quadrant  breaking;  relieving  tackle 
are  hooked  on,  the  steering  is  done  "pulley  haul"  while  repairs  are  made ; 
in  bad  weather  (the  only  time  it  happens  at  sea)  this  is  always  a  diffi- 
cult and  dangerous  job,  requiring  skill  in  every  man  assisting. 

Collisions:  The  damage  must  be  ascertained,  leaks  stopped,  and 
sinking  prevented,  or  at  least  delayed,  if  possible.  In  this  many  things 
may  be  done,  from  dragging  a  sail  or  tarpaulin  over  outside  of  the 
injured  spot  to  shoring  down  a  lower  deck  opening  over  the  damaged 
compartment  to  hold  the  pressure,  shoring  and  bracing  strained  bulk- 
heads, and  of  course  clearing  away  boats  ready  to  receive  passengers,  etc. 

Loss  of  rudder:  Sails  to  be  set  for  the  purpose  of  steadying  the 
vessel  (most  steamers  carry  sails  on  board  ready  to  be  bent  on),  a  sea 
anchor  sometimes  made  in  a  hurry,  used  if  necessary,  while  a  jury  rudder 
or  some  other  contrivance  for  steering  the  vessel  is  rigged  up. 

Engines  disabled:  The  deck  crew  with  sail  and  sea  anchor  must 
find  some  way  to  steady  the  ship  and  keep  her  out  of  the  trough  of  the 
sea  while  repairs  are  being  made. 

Wireless  gear  aloft  carried  away:  It  is  the  able  seaman  who  goes 
aloft  to  repair  the  damage  and  the  deck  officer  who  directs  the  work. 

Boat  Drill  Versus  Actual  Service. 

Held  weekly;  first  the  signal  for  "fire  drill"  is  given,  calling  the 
various  members  of  the  crew  to  their  stations,  lines  of  fire  hose  are 
pulled  down,  and  perhaps  some  of  the  valves  are  opened.  Imme- 
diately after  this  comes  the  signal  for  "boat  drill,"  for  which  the 
crew  is  now  waiting.  They  go  to  the  boats  to  which  they  are  as- 
signed. In  the  assignment  to  boat  stations  the  deck  crew  is  divided 
between  the  various  crews  in  such  a  way  that  one  man  from  that 
part  of  the  ship's  crew  will  be  in  each  boat,  as  far  as  their  number 
will  permit.  In  many  instances,  especially  in  steamers  in  the  coast- 
ing, Great  Lakes,  and  bay  and  sound  steamers,  the  deck  crew  goes 
to  the  boats  in  advance  and  prepares  them  for  the  drill  by  letting 
go  lashings,  clearing  away  tackles,  etc.  The  entire  crew  then  pro- 
ceeds to  "drill,"  covers  are  pulled  off  (not  always),  boats  hoisted 
from  the  chocks  and  swung  out  ready  for  lowering.  In  some  cases 
the  boat's  painter  is  passed  out,  and  plugs  put  in  place.  The  boats 
may  or  may  not  be  lowered  into  the  water.  In  event  any  of  the  boats 
are  lowered  the  job  consists  of  simply  lowering  the  lifeboat  into  the 
smooth  water  of  the  harbor.  Oars  are  gotten  out  and  some  pulling 
is  done.  Boats  are  then  hoisted  up  and  placed  in  the  chocks,  after 
which  the  deck  crew  completes  the  job  of  straightening  out  the  gear, 
relashing  the  boats,  etc. 

A  ship  in  distress  is  sighted,  passengers  and  crew  need  to  be 
transferred.  Five  or  six  of  the  lifeboats  are  ordered  away  for  this 
work.  Be  the  weather  good  or  bad  all  boat-drill  arrangement  is  dis- 
pensed with.  The  boats  are  cleared  away  and  manned,  not  by  their 

27 


boat-drill  crew  but  by  members  of  the  deck  crews  as  far  as  the  deck 
crew  is  sufficient  in  number  to  man  such  boats.  In  any  event  every 
important  position  in  such  boats  is  filled  by  able  seamen  or  men  of 
higher  rating  from  the  deck  department,  at  the  steering  oar,  the  stroke 
oar,  and  the  bow  oar,  are  able  seamen,  and  if  the  weather  be  very  bad 
no  more  boats  are  lowered  than  can  be  manned  with  a  majority  of 
able  seamen  in  each  boat  and  especially  in  all  important  positions.  In 
a  seaway  with  the  ship  rolling,  a  boat  must  be  lowered  so  as  to  avoid 
too  great  a  swing  and  gotten  away  from  the  ship's  side  as  soon  as  it 
is  water  borne,  otherwise  it  will  be  stove  in  by  smashing  against  the 
ship's  side,  swamped,  or  capsized.  The  boats  are  lowered  one  at  a 
time,  bumpers  or  cushions  of  sails  or  mattresses  may  be  hung  over 
the  side,  a  bridle  passed  around  the  falls  to  check  the  outward  swing, 
a  line  made  fast  to  the  lowest  point  that  can  be  reached  on  the  ship's 
side  is  passed  into  the  boat  where  it  is  used  to  check  the  outward 
swing,  while  others  of  the  crew  guard  against  the  heavy  inward 
swing  with  their  oars  laid  so  as  to  catch  the  force  of  the  blow  with- 
out breaking  the  oars.  A  sea  painter  is  used,  leading  from  well  for- 
ward on  the  ship  and  into  the  boat,  where,  unlike  the  ordinary  painter, 
it  is  not  made  fast,  but  is  held  by  one  man  with  one  or  more  turns 
around  the  thwarth  to  help  keep  her  parallel  with  the  vessel  until  it 
is  time  to  let  go,  when  it  is  used  to  shear  the  boat  off  from  the  ves- 
sel's side  sufficiently  to  make  possible  the  use  of  the  oars.  Perhaps 
the  safety  of  the  boat  depends  more  upon  this  one  man  than  upon  any 
other  that  is  in  the  boat  until  she  is  perfectly  clear.  The  lowering 
of  the  boat  must  be  done  so  as  to  keep  her  on  even  keel,  and  the  two 
men  lowering  away  at  the  tackles  must  work  well  together  and  un- 
derstand their  job,  to  which  a  knowledge  of  the  sea  is  essential,  or 
the  boat  may  come  down  end  on  and  spill  the  occupants  out,  or  may 
be  swamped  even  before  the  tackles  are  unhooked.  One  at  a  time 
the  boats  are  thus  sent  away.  As  they  return  with  their  loads  the 
people  must  be  hauled  on  board,  boats  hoisted,  and  in  this  nothing 
is  done  as  in  boat  drill. 

A  technical  description  might  be  attempted  but  would  not  be 
generally  true,  because  things  to  be  done,  and  sometimes  even  more 
important,  left  undone,  are  as  changeable  as  the  ever-changing  sea; 
nothing  but  the  experience  and  skill  coupled  with  the  mental  attitude 
acquired  as  the  result  of  a  seaman's  daily  work  at  sea  can  give  to 
any  person  the  qualities  that  go  toward  making  rescue  work  at  sea 
effective.  On  a  steamer  this  can  only  be  obtained  in  the  deck  de- 
partment. The  other  departments  require  a  high  degree  of  skill, 
but  it  is  of  a  different  kind,  acquired  under  different  conditions  and 
for  different  purposes. 

Perhaps  the  best  description  of  the  able  seaman  was  by  the  master 
who  said: 

Joe  has  been  with  me  for  two  years.  I  have  never  seen  him 
appear  to  be  wet  or  cold  nor  to  be  stumped  by  any  work  that 
came  his  way  on  board  the  vessel. 

He  must  indeed  be  able  to  do  any  work  that  comes  to  him  or 
to  which  he  is  placed,  or  he  will,  at  the  discretion  of  the  master,  be 
reduced  in  rating  and  wages  as  provided  in  Section  4612  of  the  Re- 

28 


vised  Statutes  of  the  United  States  and  by  the  maritime  laws  of  all 
nations. 

Up  to  the  time  when  insurance  had  been  so  developed  as  to  re- 
move risks  from  the  owner  of  a  ship,  and  the  responsibility  to  the 
traveler  and  shipper  had  been  minimized  and  practically  wiped  away 
by  a  limitation  of  shipowner's  liability,  the  shipowner  insisted  that 
four  years  of  experience  was  little  enough  time  to  fit  a  man  to  take 
care  of  his  property  at  sea — and  so  he  insisted  when  appealing  to 
legislators  or  by  attorneys  pleading  to  a  court — he  talks  differently 
now. 


Expose  Violations  of  Safety  Laws. 

We  have  been  trying  to  indicate  to  you  some  of  your  duties  as 
an  able  seaman  and  the  skill  needed;  but  there  are  other  duties 
which  we  urge  upon  you.  There  can  be  no  safety  to  either  passengers 
or  seamen  if  the  laws  enacted  to  conserve  and  promote  safety  are 
not  obeyed.  It  is  your  duty  to  respectfully  call  the  attention  of  the 
officer  of  the  watch  whenever  you  find  that  the  gear  is  not  in  a  safe 
condition,  if  the  boats  are  not  in  order  and  ready  for  instant  use,  if 
lookout  is  not  kept  properly,  if  lights  are  not  kept  in  order  and  in 
use  at  the  proper  time,  if  watch  and  watch  is  not  observed,  if  the  ves- 
sel has  not  a  crew  as  provided  by  law,  etc.  The  vessel  must  be 
fitted  out  and  manned  according  to  law  and  the  laws  of  safety  must 
be  properly  obeyed  or  the  vessel  is  not  entitled  to  limitation  of  lia- 
bility, and  become  liable  to  such  damages  to  any  passenger  who  is 
injured  or  to  the  heirs  of  any  passenger  who  looses  his  life  because 
of  any  disobedience  to  law  or  any  negligence  for  which  the  owner 
is  accountable  as  a  jury  may  decide. 

It  is  your  duty  to  give  the  true  information  to  inspectors  who 
are  inspecting  the  vessel,  or  investigating  any  accident,  or  to  any 
Court,  which  is  trying  to  ascertain  who  was  at  fault  or  to  determine 
whether  the  vessel's  owners  are  entitled  to  limitation  of  liability. 

If  you  are  injured  because  of  any  violation  of  law  seek  your 
redress  in  the  courts  and  furnish  the  true  facts.  Damages  will  be 
assessed  for  your  benefit;  but  that  is  not  the  most  important.  Ship- 
owners will  cease  taking  improper  chances  and  will  obey  the  law 
when  they  find  that  the  real  facts  are  exposed  in  court.  By  doing 
this  you  will  promote  the  safety  of  the  passengers  and  the  seamen  on 
your  own  vessel  and  on  the  other  vessels  and  you  will  do  a  great 
service  to  decent  shipowners,  who  suffer  under  the  undue  competi- 
tion with  ship-owners  who  are  evading  the  law.  Always  remember 
that  where  the  law  is  not  obeyed  there  the  damages  are  without  any 
limit  except  such  as  the  jury  will  assess  and  the  Courts  uphold.  You 
know  whether  or  not  the  law  was  obeyed;  it  is  your  duty  to  the 
passengers  and  the  other  seamen  to  come  forward  and  give  the 
true  information.  Remember  that  this  is  as  much  your  duty  as  to 
keep  proper  lookout  on  your  own  vessel.  Failing  in  either  you  are 
failing  in  your  supreme  duty  to  promote  safety  and  protect  life  at 
all  timci. 

29 


Know  Your  Rights  and  Be  Prepared  to  Insist  Upon  Them. 

The  preamble  to  the  constitution  of  the  Union  has  on  this  sub- 
ject the  following: 

"First  of  these  rights  is  the  right  of  each  member  to  receive 
fair  and  just  remuneration  for  his  labor,  and  to  gain  sufficient 
leisure  for  mental  cultivation  and  physical  recreation." 

"Further,*we  consider  it  our  duty  to  demand  healthy  and  suffi- 
cient food,  and  proper  forecastles  in  which  to  rest." 

"Next  is  the  right  to  be  treated  in  a  decent  and  respectful  man- 
ner by  those  in  command." 

"Next  is  the  right  of  engagement  without  the  interference  of 
crimps  or  other  parties  not  directly  interested." 

As  it  took  a  long  time  to  change  the  law  and  again  make  the  sea- 
man a  free  man  and  as  it  will  take  much  work,  expense  and  patience 
to  get  the  law  enforced  even  here  in  the  United  States,  not  to  speak 
of  getting  it  adopted  by  other  Nations,  so  it  will  take  much  work, 
expense  and  some  suffering  to  restore  seamanship  to  its  proper  place ; 
so  again  we  should  remember  our  motto :  "Tomorrow  is  also  a  day." 

Fair  remuneration  for  our  labor  means  "a  living  wage,"  and  this 
has  been  defined  by  the  His  Holiness  the  Pope — certainly  a  most  re- 
spectable authority — as  sufficient  to  live  properly  to  maintain  health 
and  strength,  to  rear  a  family  and  to  lay  something  by  for  sickness 
and  old  age. 

It  will  be  some  time  before  we  can  reach  this  standard;  but  we 
can  and  shall  reach  it  by  earnest  and  united  effort.  The  "when"  will 
depend  largely  upon  ourselves. 

The  hours  of  labor  have  been  dealt  with  by  the  law.  It  is  up  to 
us  to  see  that  the  law  is  obeyed.  The  forecastles  and  the  food  has 
also  been  dealt  with  by  the  law.  Let  us  see  that  it  is  obeyed.  Decent 
treatment  from  those  in  command  will  come  when  we  and  they  know 
the  seamen's  duty  and  are  willing  to  do  it.  This  is  a  matter  of  edu- 
cation and  must  therefor  come  slow.  But  it  will  come  sooner  or  later 
as  we  shall  know  our  duty  and  be  willing  to  do  it.  Let  it  be  re- 
membered that  officers  of  vessels  are  able  seamen  before  they  are 
officers.  In  educating  ourselves  we  shall  be  educating  the  officers. 

Much  of  the  crimp's  power  is  gone  and  what  remains  we  can  de- 
stroy by  our  own  strength  acting  collectively.  The  respect  which 
shall  be  accorded  to  us  as  seamen  by  men  on  shore  will  depend  first 
upon  removing  the  accumulated  prejudice,  second,  upon  proving  to 
them  that  we  are  their  equals  in  knowledge,  third,  upon  the  reputa- 
tion which  we  shall  acquire  and  upon  the  earning  capacity,  which  we 
shall  show  ourselves  able  to  reach  and  maintain. 

If  we  did  not  feel  the  prejudice  when  we  came  in  contact  with 
men  or  women  on  shore  it  was  because  we  had  grown  hardened  and 
joined  with  them  in  their  contempt  for  the  "common  sailor".  Who 
is  he  that  has  not  heard  the  expression :  "Oh !  He  is  only  a  common 
sailor."  Who  among  us  who  has  visited  England  is  there,  who  in 
his  heart  has  not  deeply  resented  the  two  entrances  to  the  British 
bar-room?  In  the  opinion  of  men  on  shore,  "anybody  was  good 
enough  and  most  were  too  good  to  go  to  »ea."  People,  whose  daily 

30 


and  national  life  depended  upon  the  skill,  courage  and  devotion  of 
the  seamen,  forgot  in  their  peace  and  plenty  what  the  seamen  had 
done  in  the  past  and  gave  no  thought  to  what  they  were  daily  doing. 
To  see  vessels  come  and  go,  to  enjoy  the  products  that  the  vessels 
brought,  to  expend  the  money  that  the  vessels  earned  and  to  read  in 
papers  about  shipwrecks,  was  an  every-day  occurrence  and  here  as 
elsewhere  familiarity  breeds  contempt.  The  dangers  and  struggles 
of  the  past  were  in  the  past,  they  were  never  to  return  and  people 
busy  with  their  own  lives  easily  forget  the  dead.  Nature  mercifully 
obliterates  the  grave  and  restores  vegetation  on  it  and  in  the  road 
that  leads  to  it.  It  is  well  indeed  that  this  is  so.  Life  would  be 
impossible  without  it.  But  when  great  dangers  and  the  unusual 
struggles  return  the  people  again  think  of  the  weapons  and  shields 
of  the  past.  In  this  war  the  seamen  of  Great  Britain,  ordered  by  their 
government,  are  fighting  to  compel  the  surrender  of  Germany  and 
her  Allies  by  stopping  their  commerce  and  thus  starving  them  into 
submission.  The  German  seamen,  using  that  new  and  terrible  weapon 
— the  submarine — likewise  ordered  by  their  Government,  are  trying 
to  starve  Great  Britain  and  her  Allies  into  submission.  It  is  the 
generally  accepted  opinion  that  vessels  is  the  crux  of  the  struggle. 
Sea  power — world  power — trembles  in  the  balance  and  the  deter- 
mination may  be  with  the  seamen.  The  prejudice  is  being  blown 
away  by  the  danger.  The  two  entrances  to  the  bar-room  are  still 
there;  but  the  seaman  can  go  through  either.  British  publications 
are  now  recording  their  own  high  appreciation  of  the  seaman  and  his 
work.  The  seamen  of  all  countries  have  continued  at  their  occupa- 
tion. They  are  working,  enduring  and  dying  as  in  the  past  and  the 
people  are  again  beginning  to  understand. 

The  division  of  the  seamen  into  naval  men  and  merchant  men  is 
purely  artificial  division  of  labor.  It  is  commercial  and  of  yesterday. 
There  is  in  reality  no  such  division.  The  division  is  between  skilled 
and  unskilled  seamen.  The  skilled  merchant  seaman  needs  compara- 
tively little  training  to  become  an  efficient  man-of-war's  man. 

"Without  our  Mercantile  Marine  the  Navy — and  indeed — the  Na- 
tion— could  not  exist.  *  *  *  Both  are  now  one  in  spirit  and  never 
have  British  seamen  united  in  a  more  stern  and  mighty  cause,"  says 
Admiral  Jellicoe.  Professor  W.  MacNeile  Dixon  in  his  book,  "The 
Fleets  Behind  the  Fleets,"  after  enumerating  the  number  of  seamen 
and  fishermen  has  the  following  to  say  about  them:  "There  you 
have  the  absolute  total  of  sea-farers,  to  whose  numbers,  owing  to 
their  way  of  life  and  the  peculiarity  of  their  profession  it  is  impos- 
sible during  war  rapidly  or  greatly  to  add.  No  other  reservoir  of 
such  experience  as  theirs  can  anywhere  be  found.  Perhaps  the  most 
valuable  community  in  the  world  today  and  certainly  irreplaceable. 
Means  of  replenishing  it  there  is  none."  The  prejudice  is  indeed  pass- 
ing away.  The  British  Parliament,  the  Lords  and  the  Commons, 
have  passed  the  following  Resolutions: 

HOUSE  OF  LORDS, 
DIE  LUNAE,  29°  Octobris,  1917- 

Resolved,  nemine  dissentiente,  by  the  Lords  Spiritual  and  Tem- 
poral in  Parliament  assembled,  That  the  thanks  of  this  House  be  given 
to  the  officers,  petty  officers,  and  men  of  the  Navy  for  their  faithful 
watch  upon  the  seas  during  more  than  three  years  of  ceaseless  danger 

31 


and  itress,  while  guarding  our  shores  and  protecting  from  the  attacks 
of  a  barbarous  foe  the  commerce  upon  which  the  victory  of  the  allied 
cause  depends. 

Resolved,  nemine  dissentiente,  That  the  thanks  of  this  House  be 
accorded  to  the  officers  and  men  of  the  mercantile  marine  for  the  devo- 
tion to  duty  with  which  they  have  continued  to  carry  the  vital  supplies 
to  the  allies  through  seas  infested  with  deadly  perils. 

Resolved,  nemine  dissentiente,  That  this  House  doth  acknowledge 
with  grateful  admiration  the  valour  and  devotion  of  those  who  have 
offered  their  lives  in  the  service  of  their  country,  and  tenders  its  sym- 
pathy to  their  relatives  and  friends  in  the  sorrows  they  have  sustained. 

Ordered,  by  the  Lords  Spiritual  and  Temporal  in  Parliament  assem- 
bled, That  the  Lord  Chancellor  do  communicate  the  said  resolutions  to 
the  Admiralty,  the  Army  Council,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  India, 
the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies,  and  the  Board  of  Trade, 
with  a  request  that  they  will  communicate  the  same  to  the  officers 
and  others  referred  to  therein. 

ARTHUR  T.  THRING, 
Cler.  Parliamentor. 

HOUSE  OF  COMMONS, 
Monday,  2Qth  October,  1917. 

Resolved,  nemine  contradicente,  That  the  thanks  of  this  House  be 
given  to  the  officers,  petty  officers,  and  men  of  the  Navy  for  their  faith- 
ful watch  upon  the  seas  during  more  than  three  years  of  ceaseless 
danger  and  stress,  while  guarding  our  shores  and  protecting  from  the 
attacks  of  a  barbarous  foe  the  commerce  upon  which  the  victory  oi 
the  allied  cause  depends. 

That  the  thanks  of  this  House  be  accorded  to  the  officers  and  men 
of  the  mercantile  marine  for  the  devotion  to  duty  with  which  they 
have  continued  to  carry  the  vital  supplies  to  the  allies  through  seas 
infested  with  deadly  perils. 

That  this  House  doth  acknowledge  with  grateful  admiration  the 
valour  and  devotion  of  those  who  have  offered  their  lives  in  the  service 
of  their  country,  and  tenders  its  sympathy  to  their  relatives  and 
friends  in  the  sorrows  they  have  sustained. 

Ordered,  That  Mr.  Speaker  do  signify  the  said  resolution  to  the 
Commissioners  for  executing  the  Office  of  Lord  High  Admiral  and 
to  His  Majesty's  Secretaries  of  State  for  War,  for  the  Colonies,  and 
for  India,  and  to  the  Shipping  Controller,  and  request  them  to  com- 
municate the  same  to  the  officers,  men,  and  women  referred  to  therein. 

The  wages  of  seamen  in  England  and  America — in  fact  in  all 
nations — are  rising  and  are  gradually  approaching  a  level  upon  which 
the  seaman  may  again  marry  and  live  like  other  men.  When  our 
earning  power  shall  have  reached  that  point  we  shall  know  how  to 
keep  it. 

It  is  true  that  the  seamen  of  Great  Britain,  as  well  as  of  other 
countries,  are  yet  bondmen.  It  may  also  be  true  that  when  this  world 
war  is  over,  the  joy  in  its  ending  may  again  cause  the  people  to  for- 
get; but  we  shall  not  permit  the  people  to  forget.  We  seamen  shall 
remind  them  again  and  again  until  the  present  expressions  of  ap- 
preciation and  resolutions  of  thanks  shall  be  translated  into  statutes, 
which  will  in  all  countries  make  the  seamen  free  and  shall  give  to  us 
seamen  the  opportunity  to  reconquer  our  true  place  among  men. 

"Tomorrow  Is  Also  a  Day." 


32 


